SEYED HASHEM MOOSAVI UNWELCOME IN GLASGOW

It is a matter of deep concern that a well-known and controversial Iranian Shi’ia cleric, with close ties to the regime’s fundamentalist Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will address a meeting in the Al-Mahdi Islamic Centre of Glasgow, on Albert Road, this evening (20 June). The invitation to Seyed Hashem Moosavi, director of the Islamic Centre of England (ICE), will be viewed as extreme provocation at a time of rising tension and conflict in the Middle East. The Islamic Centre of England serves as a base for Iran’s Supreme Leader, with the Al-Mahdi Foundation in Glasgow as its sister charity. Both have displayed the flag of the Iranian regime and images of the founder of the theocratic regime – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Indeed, Moosavi is widely regarded as Khamenei’s personal representative in the UK, providing a platform for the theocratic regime’s strategy of warmongering, terrorism, nuclear proliferation and threats of ‘death to America” and “death to Israel.”

In June 2020, ICE, under Moosavi’s leadership, was investigated by the Charity Commission for holding a candlelit vigil, attended by more than 2000 people, including the Iranian ambassador to the UK, in memory of the international terrorist General Qassem Soleimani, head of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Iranian regime’s Gestapo. Soleimani was responsible for the death of countless American and British soldiers and civilians. He was killed by a drone strike on his convoy at Baghdad Airport in January 2020, on the orders of President Donald Trump. Seyed Hashem Moosavi praised Soleimani as a “dedicated soldier of Islam” who had died at the hands of the “most wicked members of the human race”.

In October 2022, during the nationwide uprising that followed the death in custody of the young Kurdish woman – Mahsa Amini, Moosavi denounced the demonstrators, mainly led by women, as “soldiers of Satan.” The IRGC gunned down over 1,500 of the unarmed protesters and arrested more than 30,000, many of whom have subsequently been tortured and executed. The Charity Commission has since taken exceptional steps, including appointing an interim manager and issuing formal legal orders to regulate ICE’s activities.

In essence, Moosavi portrays himself as a scholar and cleric, while he is, in fact, a willing propaganda tool for a criminal regime, advancing its fundamentalist and misogynist narrative and undermining Britain’s domestic cohesion and broader democratic values. His presence in Glasgow at this time or indeed at any time, is deeply unwelcome.