A new leader of the alleged “London office” of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has described non-Muslims as living “like animals” and claimed that “Zionists” were behind the Islamic State group which beheaded Western journalists in Iraq.
The centre’s activities are already under investigation by the Charity Commission and it has been named as an “outreach centre” for the Islamic regime by senior MPs.
Now the Islamic Centre of England (ICE) in Maida Vale, north-west London, faces questions over its new deputy director Abbas Abedi who, the JC can reveal, made a series of inflammatory speeches including one claiming Jews slaughtered thousands of Muslim children and raped thousands of women.
Flyer for this year’s Ramadan at ICE
Abedi on a flyer for this year's Ramadan at ICE
In a speech about the foundation of Israel, delivered in Urdu in 2021, Abedi said: “Jews took revenge on Muslims and tens of thousands of Palestinians were made homeless, their kids were slaughtered, women raped, thousands violated, kids killed… the Zionist lobby made this possible, it became possible due to American and UK help.”
In another speech, available online, he said: “All people who are free believe that Zionism is the mother of terrorism. … Zionism is the mother of Isis. Don’t say ‘Islamic State’.Say ‘Israeli State in Iraq and the Levant’.”
In a speech at ICE in December 2020, he said of non-believers: “They live like animals. Like animals, they go for the food, they struggle to get some sort of rest, and then go back to fill their stomachs.” Abedi, also known as Mir Abbass Hussein, became a trustee of ICE in December.
He told the JC: “The Charity Commission knows that my presence… is to run the charity within the boundaries regulated by the British law.” He added: “Some politically motivated groups are trying to drag the charity into their political disputes.”
Abedi Facebook post
One of Abedi's Facebook posts (Facebook)
He suggested that “misinterpreting my old speeches” was a restriction of his liberty.He replaced Seyed Moosavi, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s UK representative.
In 2020, the Charity Commission gave ICE an official warning for organising a vigil for the IRGC terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani after he was killed in a US drone strike.
A new inquiry was launched after Moosavi made a speech claiming those protesting against the Iranian regime were “soldiers of Satan”. Security minister Tom Tugendhat told Parliament the Charity Commission would “soon report”. The chair of the foreign affairs select committee, MP Alicia Kearns, said: “I would like to see the IRGC office closed… This is an organisation that is solely there to spread the word of the Islamic repressive regime.”
