The Charity Commission has removed the trustees of the Islamic Centre of England and appointed an interim manager due to serious concerns over the governance and legal compliance of the charity.

Responding to the trustee sheikh-down, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat outlined his support:

“I have warned about Iranian interference in the UK and welcome the decision,” while Alicia Kearns hoped “the inquiry will conclude that the IRGC has no place operating on British soil.”

Calls for an investigation were prompted by allegations that the British charity, run by a representative of Iran’s supreme leader, hosted speakers that have called for ‘academic jihad’, reasoned that death was a ‘compassionate’ sentence for gay people, and referred to women demonstrating in Iran by moving their hijabs as ‘soldiers of Satan’ spreading ‘poison’. Charming.

The Jewish Chronicle reported that a trustee of Manchester’s Islamic Cultural Centre, Farrokh Sekaleshfar, was a keynote speaker at an event in Iran in 2020 where the audience chanted ‘death to England’. They say charity begins at home…