The Government’s former extremism adviser has warned fears over being accused of racism may have led to a network of charities becoming ‘soft power’ hubs for Iran.
A landmark report by Labour peer Lord Walney has identified more than 30 organisations that he alleges have become part of the network with links to the hardline Iranian Islamic Republic.
They include religious institutions, cultural institutions, community centres and charities operating around the UK.
But Lord Walney, a former Labour MP, says fear over being embroiled in racism rows has prevented authorities for clamping down on them but warns they must do so.
And he says the Charity Commission, which regulates charities in the UK, must be given more powers to deal with the ‘underlying mission’ of potentially rogue charities.
Former commission head Sir William Shawcross told Lord Walney that there was ‘widespread fear amongst police, amongst schools, the headmasters and others of being accused of being racist’ if they challenged any suspect organisations.
Commission chair between 2012 and 2018, Sir William said that he encountered a ‘real nervousness about talking about suspicions of Muslim organisations’.
And he warned that even eight years ago when he left the commission ‘it was already clear that the Iranians were very, very active in Britain, both in charitable and non-charitable organisations’.
A report by Labour peer Lord Walney said fears of racism accusations could lead to UK charities becoming ‘soft power’ hubs for Iran
The new report, Undue Influence, claims Iran uses the network to maintain its ‘influence and interests’ in the UK while separately plotting violent attacks against dissidents, Iranian media and the Jewish community.
Although eight of the ten charities detailed in the report as part of an alleged Iranian soft power network are already subject to some kind of ongoing investigation by the Charity Commission, Lord Walney claims there have been ‘systemic delays’ in dealing with them.
The commission did not have enough power to deal with them, struggled to get information from the Home Office and other institutions, he warned.
And all too often the report found the commission was bogged down with technical issues like complex governance problems rather than being able to strike at core concerns about organisations, leaving them free to operate without sanction for years in some cases.
In his findings, he reported that Sir William Shawcross warned the commission had ‘never had the resources it needs for any investigations, and certainly not for counter-terrorism or counter-extremism investigations’.
Kasra Aarabi, of United Against Nuclear Iran, which highlights the threats posed by the Islamic Republic, agreed authorities were afraid of being accused of Islamophobia.
‘I think this goes back to political will, and also unfortunately the fear of being labelled Islamophobic. The first thing that these people [the charities being scrutinised] will allege is Islamophobia,’ said Mr Aarabi.
Lord Walney identified the Islamic Centre of England (ICE), which was closely linked to Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed last week in an air strike on his command centre in Tehran, as an apparent ‘central node’ in the Iran-linked charity network.
The Islamic Centre of England held a vigil in 2020 to mark the death of General Qasem Soleimani
Khamenei apparently appointed its past director and secretary and last week mourners paid tribute to him, placing candles and photos of him outside the building in Maida Vale, north west London.
ICE has long been accused of being linked to the brutal regime.
Last year the Government’s cross party Intelligence and Security Committee even said that ICE may provide Iranian intelligence agents ‘with a useful base from which to act’.
Aliasghar Ramezanpour, deputy minister of culture in the Iranian government between 2000 and 2003, described ICE as a ‘kind of a headquarters that supervises all the network [of charities in the UK]’ in the report.
In 2020, ICE received an official warning from the Charity Commission after hosting a vigil for Qasem Soleimani, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) killed by the US, who was subject to UK sanctions.
The event was attended by more than 2,000 people, including Iran’s ambassador to London, The Times reported.
Soleimani was praised as a ‘dedicated soldier of Islam’ who had died at the hands of ‘the most wicked members of the human race’.
In 2021, further regulatory concerns were identified and an action plan was issued.
A statutory inquiry which it is still subject to was opened in November 2022 by the commission because ICE failed to fully comply with both the official warning and action plan.
General Soleimani (centre) was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020
Following accusations in the report, ICE has denied it acts as a headquarters for any network linked to Khamenei.
It wrote to Lord Walney claiming that neither the Iranian political system nor any political figure influenced or controlled its activities and denied representing any foreign government.
ICE said it believed the publication of what it described as inaccurate and inflammatory claims risked promoting religious hatred and causing harm.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has also hit back at Lord Walney accusing him of ‘McCarthyite bluster’ in a reference to Senator Joseph McCarthy who triggered the infamous 1950s hearings into an alleged communist spy ring in the US State Department.
His report details allegations against the IHRC, which organises the annual Al Quds demonstration linked to the Iranian regime.
He reported how the group’s director has praised the Iranian regime and backed the fatwa issued against Sir Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, who famously was forced into hiding for years after it was issued.
In a deeply personal rebuke, its Iranian Chair Massoud Shadjareh accused Lord Walney of ‘inappropriately using’ his position as a peer to write the report as well as being a ‘pro Israel bad faith actor’.
He also accused him of spreading his ‘unevidenced claims’ in The Spectator magazine through his wife Isabel Hardman, its assistant editor.
And he claimed the IHRC ‘had repeatedly been targeted for violence in these last few years (including during the Gaza genocide, when the premises were attacked after similar misleading claims were made)’ and accusing him of ‘unfounded claims’ which ‘only add to the material that incites such violence’.
The Charity Commission has also opened a regulatory compliance case into Dar Alhekma Trust after one of its trustees Saeed Shehabi praised a commander of the IRGC and wrote after the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas that Palestinians ‘rose up and became the master of the situation’.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to whom Lord Walney’s report suggests the Islamic Centre of England was closely linked, was assassinated in a US-Israel attack last weekend
Lord Walney cited an incident in May 2024 in which a man who worked with the charity was involved in an incident with Iranian dissidents, which left one victim with serious spinal cord injuries.
But Dar Alhekma distanced itself from the man, saying he had never held a leadership or governance role but only performed at the mosque on a limited freelance basis as a radod, or singer.
It ‘categorically rejected’ claims that it exists to further the interests of Iran’s regime, and that Shehabi was a ‘long-standing peaceful campaigner’.
A spokesman said that his personal comments did not represent the trust’s views and it was ‘misleading to present them as proof that Dar Alhekma Trust is acting to advance the interests of the Iranian regime’.
Lord Walney’s report recommends strengthening the Charity Commission with a range of measures including expanding its disqualification powers, mandating information sharing by other authorities to the commission, expediting its appeals process for extremism-related investigations and introducing identity verification for trustees.
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission told The Times on Saturday that it takes alleged links between charities and extremism very seriously and assessed all reports ‘without fear or favour’.
‘As a civil regulator, we use the powers granted to us by Parliament to respond robustly to evidence of wrongdoing and make referrals to other agencies where appropriate, including where there is evidence of criminality.
‘In light of this week’s developments in Iran we have been in direct contact with a number of the charities mentioned in this report to remind the trustees of their legal duties relating to any political activity, proactively warning them of the consequences of breaching charity law.
‘However, it is not presently open to the commission to remove charitable status as a sanction and, in the absence of proscription of the IRGC, the commission can only act where there is clear evidence of a breach of charity law.
‘As the threat from extremism grows, we know our powers must keep pace. We are currently in welcome dialogue with the government to ensure our powers and our corresponding resources are fit for the present and the future.’
