UK ‘interfaith’ charities worth millions unmasked as hubs of support for terror groups

Alwadaei[Missing Credit]

Another, Saeed Al-Shehabi, who is a trustee of both organisations, was on the US “no fly” list drawn up by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Centre and posted a gushing tribute to Iranian terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani after he was killed by a US drone strike, calling him a “noble and wise” leader who “met his Lord covered in the blood of martyrdom”.

Meanwhile, Moosa Abd Ali Mohammed, who was granted asylum in Britain in 2006 and is listed on the Charity Commission website as a Dar Alhekma trustee, is a vocal supporter of the terror groups sponsored by Iran – Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Both charities are run by exiled members of the Bahraini opposition, which seeks to topple the Gulf state’s monarchy, and are located in prime areas of central London. Abrar can be found on Crawford Street, a few steps from Hyde Park, and Dar Alhekma is located on Chalton Street, close to the British Library.

The JC understands that the Charity Commission received dossiers about the two charities months ago. It is yet to begin a formal investigation, but a spokesperson said: “We have opened regulatory cases into both to determine if there is a role for the Commission.”

At the heart of the pro-Iran network unearthed by the JC is Saeed Al-Shehabi, the exiled leader of the Bahrain Freedom Movement. He has lived in Britain since being granted political asylum in 1985.

A trustee of both Abrar and Dar Alhekma, his links with Iran’s Islamist regime date back many years.

In 2012, it emerged that the mortgage on a building that contained Shehabi’s office had been paid by the Iranian government, and that a hardline Iranian official was one of the directors of the company that owned it. At the time Shehabi commented he was “only a tenant” and had not been aware of the mortgage arrangements.

He has often given speeches and attended events at the Islamic Centre of England (ICE), the central London mosque whose successive heads have also served as the personal UK representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Leaked documents seen by the JC state that at least as recently as 2019, he was on the US “no fly” list drawn up by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Centre, which means he would have been unable to board a flight to, from or within the United States.

The ICE – dubbed the “London office” of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by MPs – is currently being investigated by the Charity Commission for allegedly sponsoring extremism. In 2020 the Commission issued a “formal warning” after it held a vigil for the IRGC’s terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani when he was killed in a US drone strike, while the ICE continues to host talks by Shehabi on its website.

When Soleimani was killed, Shehabi tweeted that that “Iran is proud of its heroes, like Qassem Soleimani, because he is the son of the country who believes in God.”

In another post, he said: “May God have mercy on General Qassem Soleimani, who defended his religion, humanity and his country, and met his Lord covered in the blood of martyrdom… fair-minded people described him as brave, intelligent, wise, gentle and humble.”

Shehabi has spoken at conferences in Iran alongside senior regime figures. He also spoke at an online event in 2021 that was entitled “Jerusalem is closer”, at which other speakers included envoys from Hamas and PIJ. Participants reportedly repeated the slogan “death to Israel” and pledged to support the “axis of resistance”, the phrase coined by Iran to describe its web of terrorist proxies.

He has also been photographed speaking at an event in London with Ayatollah Mohsen Alaraki, a former head of the ICE and a member of Iran’s Council of Experts that chooses the country’s supreme leader. Alaraki left Britain in 2020, and some time after his meeting with Shehabi, in 2022 said that protesters against the regime should be executed.

The two charities Shehabi runs, Dar Alhekma and the Abrar Islamic Foundation, have been recognised by the Charity Commission for more than 40 years. Their accounts show that Dar Alhekma has assets of around £4 million, and Abrar more than four times as much.

According to its website, the Abrar Islamic Foundation seeks to “reach out to other faith and social groups and extend the hand of friendship”, to “promote unity among all human beings” and “take practical steps towards genuine human integration”. The Dar Alhekma Trust has also stressed its “interfaith” work in its annual reports.

But Shehabi’s response to the terrorist massacre of October 7 was swift and incendiary. On October 8 he posted on X: “Glory be to God… the oppressed of Palestine rose up and became master of the situation. Oh God, grant them victory.”

He also shared posts by others saying they had “received with great joy the news of the ‘Al-Aqsa flood’ operation” which had led to deaths of many of “the brutal Zionist enemy”.

In November Shehabi reposted a tweet containing a photo of Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah, with the slogan “we obey you Nasrallah”. The post went on to celebrate “the resistance” and denounced “the crimes conducted by the occupying Israeli entity”.

The Abrar charity publishes a biweekly newsletter in both English and Arabic. In the week following the massacre, the English version contained articles about the Gaza war, expressing concerns about Palestinian civilian casualties. Absent, however, was an item published in Arabic only inviting readers to support “the jihad-engaging Palestinian people”.

Other articles published only in Arabic promulgate extreme antisemitism. One example came on November 30, a review of a book called Arabs and Jews Throughout History. It stated that the Jews’ claim to have an historic connection to Israel was “invalid and untrue”, while “the Talmud’s view towards every human who is not Jewish is a view of contempt, derogation and grudge”.

The “Jews’ kingdom”, it went on, “shall take over the world with evil and tyranny”.

The Arabic newsletter has also published sermons by Khamenei saying Israel must be destroyed, bogus claims that Jews agreed to become a “foreign body” in the Middle East during secret talks with the British government in 1907, and an article that discussed “ways to confront the Israeli entity and remove it from existence”.

One of the worst examples was a piece published in June, which claimed the Holocaust had been greatly exaggerated as part of “covert attempts to gain unwavering sympathy for Israel” and to “extort” billions of dollars from Germany”.

The article, a review of a book called Al-Ibrahimiya and the Imposition of Zionist Leadership, said it revealed “the evil of the Zionists and their colonial ambitions” and “the secret why Jews are hated and despised around the world”. After the JC asked for comment, the piece was taken offline.

Abrar’s Arabic newsletter often republishes items that had previously appeared in Al-Mayadeen, a Lebanese TV channel and website aligned with Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, two weeks after the massacre, Dar Alhekma held an event to discuss “the Palestinian position on the Palestinian issue”. One of the speakers repeated Khamenei’s often-stated claim that Israel is a “cancer” that had to be “eradicated”.

Other individuals active in both charities have also supported the Iranian regime and anti-Israel terror groups. Like Shehabi, Moosa Mohammed mourned Soleimani as a “martyr of the resistance” on social media, and since October 7 has posted a series of videos supporting attacks by both Hezbollah and Hamas.

In one, which Mohammed posted on Instagram on 23 October, a man wearing a headband bearing the slogan “death to America” amid a group of people holding Hezbollah flags warned: “We are coming to make a stand of pride and dignity alongside our people, our flesh and blood, our Palestinian people... There is no other way but resistance. Unfortunately, no one is standing with the resistance except the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

In another, a crowd of protesters urge Nasrallah to “strike” and “destroy Tel Aviv”.

Also involved with the charities is London resident Jafar Ahmad Jassim Al-Hesabi, a former Dar Alhekmar trustee, who now takes an active part in their events as a radood, a religious chanter.

A post by Hesabi[Missing Credit]

In his frequent appearances on Iranian pro-regime TV channels, he has spoken of his “pride and joy” at the “victories” of the “Palestinian resistance in Gaza” and praised the Hezbollah and the Houthis.

His social media posts include a cartoon depicting Benjamin Netanyahu dining on human Palestinian flesh while President Joe Biden, dressed as a waiter, fills his wineglass with Palestinian blood.

However, among those involved with Shehabi’s charities, none is more outspoken in his support for Iran than Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who has spoken at many of their events and is also a radood.

In November 2022, he was filmed outside the ICE when anti-regime protesters clashed with its supporters who emerged from the mosque. He was shouting “we are the soldiers of Khamenei” and “death to the hypocrites”.

On 27 April this year, Alwadaei took part in an anti-Israel protest in central London. He was videoed there by a man who asked why he was carrying an Iranian flag. He replied: “Basically, because without Iran, I believe there is no resistance, and Palestinians would not survive… they support Palestine with everything, everything you want.”

Four weeks later, Alwadaei joined about 600 mourners at a service in a mosque in Wembley after the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, the “butcher of Tehran” died in a helicopter crash. Among them was Khamenei’s UK representative and former head of the ICE, Seyed Hashem Moosavi.

When a handful of dissidents gathered outside, a group of about 20 men dressed in black streamed out from the mosque and confronted them. A video of the incident shows Alwadaei beside a man who spat at and repeatedly threatened Bahrar Mahroo, 24, with the words “I will f*** you”.

Moments later, she was sexually assaulted, knocked down and kicked in the face and torso by one of the men in the pro-regime group while she lay on the ground.

Mahroo’s friend Navid Bavi, 32, was attacked even more violently. The video shows Alwadaei throwing a projectile as the attack on Bavi began. The group continued to attack Bavi as he lay on the roadway, defenceless, with punches and kicks to his back which left him paralysed.

When the JC visited him in hospital more than a week later, he was still unable to walk. Since then, he has started walking again but with a pronounced limp.

Bavi told the JC he recognised Alwadaei from the video as one of the men who attacked him, saying he punched him “and threw something at me as well. I have no doubt he was the man in the video.”

Mohammed and the two charities refused to comment. The JC approached Alwadaei and Al-Hesabi but they did not respond.

Shehabi said in a statement: “I am deeply saddened that charities which exist to improve the lives of their beneficiaries are being smeared. It is wholly false to suggest that the charities, or I, have supported any unlawful behaviour or activities, and we are confident that any enquiries into these matters would reach the same conclusion.”

A previous version of this articled said Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei was a “leading figure” in both charities. This was inaccurate; Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei was a radood, and worked with the charities on a freelance basis. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.