Senior commanders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are using a London-based student organisation to pipe extremist antisemitic propaganda and calls for violence into British universities.
The speakers, some of whom who are sanctioned by Britain for human rights abuses, have played key roles in crushing of dissent in Iran.
This is the first time that IRGC commanders have been seen to play a direct role in disseminating regime propaganda in the UK.
The JC has identified eight IRGC leaders who have addressed UK student audiences since early 2020.
The former methodist church in Hammersmith where the supporters gathered (Photo: John Nguyen / JNVisuals)
Recordings obtained by this newspaper reveal that one commander, Saeed Ghasemi, told British students that the Holocaust was “fake”, boasted of training al-Qaeda terrorists, and urged his audience to join “the beautiful list of soldiers” who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war.
Another speaker was Hossein Yekta, also from the IRGC’s Lebas Shakhsi division, whose online talk was introduced by the UK student organisation’s chair in September 2020.
Yekta had previously claimed that Jews “created homosexuality, are destroying the environment, are destroying the family”. The world has entered the “preface to the apocalypse”, he has claimed, and the “era of the Jews” will soon be at an end.
His online talk to the British Islamic student group, viewed more than 1,500 times on Instagram alone, urged UK-based students to “raise the flag of the Islamic Revolution, Islam and martyrdom”. They must see themselves as “holy warriors in the field of knowledge”, he urged, and be ready to fight alongside the Mahdi.
The disclosures sparked renewed demands from leading MPs and security experts for the government to proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group, making organising similar talks a criminal offence. The move has been resisted by the Foreign Office.
Seyed Moosavi (Photo: Copyright Unknown)
The talks, which were live streamed from Iran and viewed by tens of thousands of people, were arranged by the Islamic Students Association of Britain, which has a network of branches across the country.
It is based at a converted Methodist church in Hammersmith, west London, just a mile from a synagogue.
In the wake of the JC’s revelations, Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, led calls to proscribe the IRGC to outlaw its propaganda activities. “The case for strong preventive action seems clear-cut,” he said.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, said: “In organising such despicable talks, the Islamic Students Association of Britain acts at best as a willing propaganda arm of the Iranian regime, and at worst as an agitator for state sponsored terrorism.
“To broadcast the jihadist and deeply antisemitic ideas of senior members of the IRGC to students across Britain is a brazen act of radicalisation. We must pursue and prosecute those responsible trying to incite violence here in the UK.”
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy added: “The invitation of IRGC commanders and other speakers who glorify its actions to speak to British students is incredibly concerning. Robust action is needed now.”
Security and intelligence expert Anthony Glees, Emeritus Professor at the University of Buckingham, said: “This kind of penetration is a perilous development that may well be damaging national security. America has proscribed these people and we should too.”
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis added: “The British state has long resisted the proscription of the IRGC.
“The JC’s investigation provides clear evidence of the dangers of allowing this organisation to operate unfettered.
"It represents a threat to life and to the UK, and it’s time to get the Foreign Office to act to stop this happening.”
A spokesman for the CST said: “If these hateful comments had been made by somebody speaking in this country they would be prosecuted for it. The organisers and hosts of these talks ought to be held to account.”
The IRGC commanders given a platform to spread propaganda to UK students (Photo: JC)
