Iran expert brands Islamic Center of England Iran's 'UK office,' urges immediate closure

A leading Iran expert has called on the British government to shut down an Islamic center that he claimed has been functioning as an office of the regime’s supreme leader amid a shocking report that Iran’s regime smuggled operatives into the United Kingdom.

The Islamic Center of England recently came into the spotlight following revelations that the U.K. government has allegedly allowed the center to sponsor visas for imams. The report comes at a time when Iran has said Britain is a legitimate target if it allows the U.S. to use its bases to fly missions against Tehran.

The reported green light to imams to secure visas as "skilled workers" for the Islamic Center raises profound questions about dangerous gaps in Britain’s national security and immigration policies, according to lawmakers and Mideast experts.

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Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] Research at United Against Nuclear Iran told Fox News Digital, "In light of the IRGC’s threat to attack Britain and reports that it has been exploiting the illegal migrant crisis to send ‘Islamic revolutionary agents’ to the country, the U.K. government simply must not tolerate the existence of this Islamist extremist infrastructure on British soil."

Aarabi added, "The Islamic Centre of England — a U.K.-registered charity and mosque — has long been operating as the office of the Iranian regime’s supreme leader in the U.K. Its Imam is the personally appointed U.K. representative of the regime’s supreme leader. The very fact that the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, who is ordering terror plots on British soil, has an office and appointed representative in the U.K. is completely unacceptable. In light of the IRGC’s latest threats against Britain, the center should be immediately shut down and all of its non-British staff deported."

The revelation about the Islamic Center of England comes amid a report in the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph that Tehran officials claimed the IRGC controls some illegal human trafficking routes between the Middle East and the English Channel.

An Iranian official told The Telegraph, "Of course, don’t forget that our armed forces have influence and run the [smuggling] routes in some cases if they want." The official warned, "At the moment we have people right there in London, revolutionary people who care about the world and the lives of children – they wait for us to tell them what to do. We have not done that yet, but we can easily make London unsafe for you if we want to."

The official added, "These smuggling routes are more important and useful than the missiles for us – we do not need a missile to target London, it’s easier than that."

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Fox News Digital previously reported in February that the Islamic Center of England was accused of selling merchandise supporting the U.S.-designated terrorist movement, Hezbollah and the IRGC — also a U.S.-classified terrorist entity.

The Islamic Center allegedly had stickers of late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps global terrorist Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the murders of over 600 U.S. military personnel, according to the Trump administration. President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike in January 2020 that killed Soleimani in Iraq.

A spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Home Office — a mix of the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ — told Fox News Digital, "The Islamic Center of England has not sponsored any workers since 2022 under the previous government, and the Charity Commission is currently investigating this organization."

The Home Office spokesperson continued, "We treat the threat posed by the Iranian regime and those who do its bidding with the utmost seriousness. That’s why we have fast-tracked a change in the law to outlaw support for the IRGC, equipping the police and intelligence service with more powers to disrupt those working on their behalf, and making it easier to prosecute them. If wrongdoing is uncovered, those responsible will face the full force of the law, with the possibility of lengthy prison sentences, loss of licenses, and further civil action."

Iran and its chief strategic ally, Hezbollah, have been blamed for bombing the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 in which 63 people, including 17 Americans, were murdered, and dual suicide truck bombers blew up the barracks of American and French members of a multinational force in Lebanon in 1983, in which 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors and 3 U.S. Army soldiers lost their lives. Fifty-eight French troops were also murdered in the terrorist attack.

Critics have long urged the British government to pull the plug on the Islamic Center’s operation as pressure mounts on the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, to act against Iranian regime apparatus in the country.

Aarabi said, "Burnham’s government should use all available tools — including the new designation of the IRGC under the National Security (State Threats) Act — to dismantle this Islamist extremist apparatus across Britain that is linked to the IRGC. To put it more clearly: all the charities, mosques and centers that have carried out IRGC-linked activity should be dismantled, and their non-British staff deported immediately. No ifs or buts."

He added "The Imam of the center, who is the representative of the ayatollah in the U.K., has continuously expressed extremist views that are sympathetic to the IRGC. In spite of this, not only does he continue to reside in the U.K. but he is listed as the trustee of several charities in Britain. This individual does not hold a diplomatic passport, meaning his visa could be immediately revoked."

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Aarabi argued that the "IRGC has built an entire ‘soft power’ infrastructure across Britain under the guise of charities, mosques and colleges. The IRGC’s goal has been to use this infrastructure to nurture home-grown Islamist radicalization, terrorism and acts of violence. In doing so, it has successfully cultivated, within segments of the British Muslim community, what can only be described as an Islamist constituency that is loyal to it and its violent extremist ideology. These tactics mimic ISIS and al Qaeda — yet there has been no attempt to counter it by the British government."

Iranian agents have attacked Iranian dissidents over the years in Britain. Two Romanian nationals, who prosecutors said had been acting ​for Iran, were jailed this month for stabbing a journalist working for an independent Iranian news outlet, Iran International, in London.

Tehran has always denied involvement in such attacks, calling allegations ​to the contrary unfounded and politically motivated.

"If the IRGC seeks to attack Britain, it could activate this radicalized Islamist constituency for acts of home-grown violence and terror. This form of kind-actor terror, where a radicalized extremist carries out an attack because they’re ideologically inspired rather than paid or directed by Tehran, also provides the IRGC with sufficient plausible deniability to complicate attribution and reduce the likelihood of British retaliation," said Aarabi.

A spokesperson for the Islamic Center of England told Fox News Digital, "The Islamic Center of England is an independent registered charity, established and operating under the laws of England and Wales. It is governed by English charity law and regulated by the Charity Commission. It is not an official office or representative of any government, political entity, or individual."

The spokesperson for the center added, "Like many charities, faith organizations and other eligible institutions in the U.K., the Center holds a Home Office sponsor license, which allows it to sponsor skilled workers where it meets the requirements of the U.K.'s immigration system."

The spokesperson concluded, "Sponsor licenses are granted and overseen by the Home Office, and all licensed sponsors are required to comply with the same legal and regulatory obligations. The Center has consistently maintained that it is an independent U.K. charity and carries out its activities in accordance with U.K. law and its charitable objectives."

The British prime minister’s press office referred Fox News Digital to the Home Office for comments.

Reuters contributed to this report.