The Charity Commission is investigating videos of antisemitic speeches by Iranian generals delivered to UK students, including footage of 'death to Israel' chants at a London Islamic centre. The videos, verified by the BBC, feature members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and have raised concerns about radicalisation of British Muslims.
One video shows IRGC commander Hossein Yekta urging students to become 'soft-war officers' in an ideological battle against the West. Another features former IRGC commander Gen Saeed Ghasemi glorifying the death of Gen Qasem Soleimani. The speeches were promoted by the Islamic Students Associations of Britain (ISA) and held at the Kanoon Towhid centre in west London, owned by the Al-Tawheed Charitable Trust, which is already under investigation.
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, described the speeches as a 'brazen act of radicalisation' and called for the IRGC to be proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK. Security services have warned that the IRGC is inciting violence and plotting attacks on British soil, with at least 16 plots linked to Iran since 2020.
Professor Ali Ansari of the University of St Andrews said the talks aimed to 'undermine the stability of Western society' and called for a robust response. The Charity Commission has the power to sanction or close charities that breach regulations, and its chair Orlando Fraser has warned against charities becoming forums for hate speech.
