New Report: UK Charities Exploited as Iranian Regime’s ‘Soft Power Infrastructure’
A new report reveals that 10 UK charities function as a coordinated network with alleged IRGC ties and regime governance overlap, with eight currently under investigation.
The March 2026 report by Lord Walney, co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Defending Democracy, documents systematic governance overlap between UK charities and Iranian state institutions. Senior charity figures have held positions within Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and the Qom Seminary establishment, which oversee state-sanctioned religious doctrine.
The Islamic Centre of England (ICEL), which Lord Walney identifies as the network’s “headquarters,” previously required by constitutional provision that one trustee be appointed directly by Iran’s Supreme Leader, a requirement the Charity Commission only removed in March 2023.
The UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee stated in July 2025 that “there are grounds to suggest” ICEL and similar centers are “being used to promote violent and extremist ideology.”
Alleged IRGC Links and Terror Network Connections
According to the report, multiple U.K. charities maintain documented connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Trustees of Labaik Ya Zahra charity met personally with IRGC Brigadier General Majid Hashemi-Dana in Tehran in 2024, with founder Syeda Umme Farwa signing a memorandum committing to spread the ideals of Iran’s 1979 revolution. Farwa had previously received an award from Ebrahim Raisi, nicknamed the “Butcher of Tehran.”
Several charities share links to Al-Mustafa International University, which the US Treasury designated for recruiting for the IRGC’s Quds Force. The US Department of Justice seized the domain of Ahlulbayt Foundation in 2021 for ties to IRGC-controlled media operations.
Indoctrination and Youth Targeting
The report asserts that at least half of the charities examined publicly eulogized sanctioned IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani following his death in 2020, with several hosting commemorations featuring “death to Israel” chants.
In 2022, ICEL hosted filming of “Hello Commander,” an English-language propaganda song featuring saluting children pledging support to the Mahdi and “likely to the Iranian state leadership,” according to the report. The charity Idara E Jaaferiya received an official warning after memorializing Soleimani in children’s Madrassa lessons.
The 2023 Independent Review of Prevent described the Islamic Human Rights Commission as “an Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime” with “a history of extremist links and terrorist sympathies.”
Regulatory Failures Enable Continued Operations
Lord Walney identifies a “compliance trap” whereby Charity Commission interventions focus on procedural reforms rather than dismantling regime-aligned entities. Despite eight of ten charities facing regulatory scrutiny, most continue operating while investigations drag on for years.
Three charities currently under investigation remain eligible for Gift Aid, enabling them to claim taxpayer-funded subsidies of 25p per pound donated.
The report recommends legislative reforms enabling the Charity Commission to deregister charities based on hostile state influence, mandatory cross-government intelligence sharing, public flagging of all investigations, and exclusion of charities with extremism concerns from Gift Aid.
Iranian diaspora experts consulted for the report stated that some community members are “apprehensive about traveling into parts of Brent” where several regime-linked charities operate, pointing to a climate of intimidation that extends Tehran’s transnational repression into British neighborhoods.