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Senior police officer responsible for ‘faith relations’ addressed IRGC linked group
Inspector Arfan Rahouf is North Yorkshire Police’s Operational Lead for Faith and Belief
August 10, 2023 09:38
Inspector Arfan Rahouf is North Yorkshire Police’s Operational Lead for Faith and Belief
August 10, 2023 09:38A Police Officer whose role is to engage with faith groups has refused to say if he carried out checks before agreeing to appear as a guest speaker at a UK students group now linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
The group, the Islamic Students Association of Britain, has hosted a series of speeches by commanders of the IRGC who have been sanctioned by the UK government for human rights abuses. The speeches included calls to join an “apocalyptic war” on Jews.
Inspector Arfan Rahouf, North Yorkshire Police’s Operational Lead for Faith and Belief, this week failed to respond when asked if he had carried out any due diligence before giving a speech to the group shortly after it praised a top IRGC general, killed in an airstrike, as a martyr.
A JC investigation has revealed how the organisation, based in Hammersmith, west London, hosted speeches by officials from the IRGC urging the audience to “raise the flag of the Islamic revolution, Islam and martyrdom”. The addresses also urged students to see themselves as “holy warriors” and bring an end to the “era of the Jews”.
Rahouf gave an online talk to the group, which has branches on university campuses across Britain, on “Racism and Islamophobia” three years ago.
Later that same year, the student group also hosted one of the leaders of the IRGC’s notorious plainclothes division which is responsible for the arrest, torture and murder of dissidents. In that online talk, Hossein Yekta urged UK-based students to raise the flag of the Islamic revolution and to embrace martyrdom.
In the same period the Islamic Students Association of Britain also hosted Ezzatollah Zarghami, who talked about his role taking 52 Americans hostage in Iran in 1979. Zarghami, now a member of Iran’s hardline cabinet, was sanctioned by the UK for his role in broadcasting “forced confessions of detainees and a series of show trials” as head of the country’s state-run TV channel.
This week a North Yorkshire police spokesperson confirmed that Rahouf had spoken to the association in his official role but did not answer when questioned about whether the speech had been officially authorised.
They said: “A key part of [his] role was to promote North Yorkshire Police’s commitment to encourage and reflect diversity within the force. He attended with the sole intention to raise awareness of policing as a credible career path with students from an underrepresented minority ethnic group.”
They added: “Since the online event in 2020, the Islamic Students Association of Britain has made no further contact with [Inspector] Rahouf or with North Yorkshire Police.”
According to local media reports, the recently promoted inspector also helped to design a hijab worn by his force’s female Muslim officers and often attends interfaith events, including Chanukah celebrations in York last year. Asked whether he had been aware of the student association’s links to the Iranian regime and the IRGC when he gave his talk in June 2020, Rahouf refused to comment.
By that stage, the group had already posted content praising the IRGC terrorist mastermind Qasem Soleimani as a “martyr” after he was killed in a US drone strike in January 2020. Videos of events hosted at the headquarters of the Islamic Students Association of Britain, a former Methodist church in London, showed speakers saying the regime’s enemies could expect “harsh revenge” and featured people chanting “death to Israel”.
The JC revealed last week that the organisation subsequently hosted online events with eight IRGC commanders and its chair, Mohammad Hussain Ataee Dolat Abadi, was praised for his activities in a rare audience with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.