Britain drags feet on IRGC terror designation as Iran-linked center allegedly sells extremist merchandise

Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on Iran who has written extensively on Iran's influence operations in the United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital the "Islamic Centre of England is a regime outpost.

The Daily Telegraph reported in late January that U.K. authorities were investigating the Islamic Centre of England for allegedly selling Hezbollah phone cases and pro-Iranian regime key rings. Britain has sanctioned the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah.

The bazaar also allegedly had stickers of late IRGC global terrorist Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the murders of over 600 military personnel, according to the Trump administration. President Trump ordered a drone strike in January 2020 that killed Soleimani in Iraq.

Emma Schubart, a research fellow at Britain's Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, "The Islamic Centre of England is not an isolated religious institution; it is part of a wider ecosystem of Iranian state-linked influence operating openly in the U.K., and at the center of that ecosystem sits the IRGC."The U.K. Government is dragging its feet over designating the IRGC. By delaying action, ministers are allowing hostile Iranian networks to continue operating under the cover of civil society and religious life. This is a dangerous blind spot in Britain's national security."

The Islamic Centre of England is a registered charity. When asked about reports of the Islamic Center's role in selling pro-terrorist merchandise, a spokesperson for the U.K.'s Charity Commission told Fox News Digital, "As part of our ongoing statutory inquiry into (the) Islamic Centre of England, we have raised concerns with the trustees about material sold by third parties at a recent event hosted at the charity's premises. We take very seriously any alleged links between a charity and extremism or terrorism. Such links are abhorrent and corrosive to the trust on which the charitable sector depends."

Azarmehr, however, countered, "The U.K. Charity Commission, the regulatory body, has been 'investigating' the center for five years with no decisions and no updates other than appointing an interim director, but the center carries on business as usual.

"The only tangible result is that every time you make a complaint to the charity about the center, they reply by saying that because they are investigating the center, they cannot comment.

"The first head of the center, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, is now a member of Iran's powerful Assembly of Experts and a key figure in propagating Iran's soft power abroad. Araki's family have U.K. citizenship. The previous U.K. government, in which Alicia Kearns was part of its administration, even paid the center in excess of £100,000 in COVID-19 furlough."

Kearns, who is the shadow minister for home affairs for the opposition Conservative party, is now demanding that the Islamic Center be shuttered. 

"The figures being idealized are responsible for the cold-blooded murder of tens of thousands of young Iranian protesters, adding to the many regional and international crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

A spokesperson for the Islamic Centre of England told Fox News Digital, "The trustees take all concerns about the center very seriously. We are currently reviewing matters pertaining to the Dec. 14 event and, in light of this, are unable to comment further at this time."

Video footage embedded in Farage's post and other clips on social media shows a mix of pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran regime messaging at the protests.

Multiple Fox News Digital inquiries to the British prime minister's office went unanswered.