by Jim Chimirie on X
A 109 page report by Lord Walney, submitted to the House of Lords this week, lifts the curtain on how Iran has systematically built a soft power infrastructure inside Britain through the charitable sector. It names ten organisations, among them the Islamic Centre of England, the Islamic Human Rights Commission Trust, the Irshad Trust trading as The Islamic College, and Labaik Ya Zahra. It traces their personnel links to the IRGC and Iranian state institutions. It documents the spread of Khomeinist ideology, the fostering of antisemitism, and the transnational repression of Iranian dissidents on British soil. And then it reveals the detail that should stop every taxpayer cold: four of the named charities are recognised for HMRC Gift Aid. Britain is not just failing to stop Iran’s network. It is subsidising it, by twenty five pence in every pound donated.
Walney’s report documents how Iran has systematically built a soft power infrastructure inside Britain through the charitable sector. The ten named charities spread Khomeinist ideology, foster antisemitism, conduct transnational repression of Iranian dissidents, and maintain direct personnel links to the IRGC and Iranian state institutions. Eight of the ten are under Charity Commission investigation. All ten continue to operate.
The most revealing detail is not what these charities do. It is what happens when the regulator finds out. When the Islamic Centre of England was found to have a constitution legally requiring one trustee to be a direct appointee of the Iranian supreme leader, the Commission’s solution was to have the trustee step down and the constitution amended. The same figures, with the same ideological connections, simply rotated back into power under different titles. The Commission filed the case and moved on. The network kept operating.
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