UK Islamic charity linked to Iran faces insurance hurdle to reopening

The Charity Commission has been investigating the Islamic Centre of England

The Islamic Centre of England in Maida Vale, London, has been closed since May 2023. Alamy

A British charity run by the UK representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, will not reopen until its state-appointed administration can secure insurance for its London premises.

The Charity Commission opened an investigation into the Islamic Centre of England over its links to Iran and removed the trustees from the board. In May, a few weeks after the inquiry began, the centre closed.

On Thursday, the watchdog revealed the closure was the result of an insurance issue.

“The Charity Commission has confirmed that the ongoing temporary closure of the Islamic Centre of England’s premises in London results from problems in securing the necessary insurance to enable the mosque to be reopened for public use,” the commission said.

“Since being appointed as interim manager (IM), Emma Moody has worked hard with the trustees to secure the necessary insurance for the charity so that it can reopen the mosque to worshippers, and this process is ongoing.

“The insurance problems predate the IM’s appointment. The trustees were aware from April 2023 that the charity’s then insurers had decided not to renew some of its insurance policies. They therefore decided to temporarily cease some of the charity’s activities. The IM was appointed on May 4, 2023. On May 23, 2023, in consultation with the IM, the trustees took the difficult decision to temporarily close the mosque.

“The commission is aware of various reports and allegations relating to the causes of the temporary closure of the charity’s premises. Until insurance policies are secured, it is not legal for the charity to reopen for public use. Suggestions that the temporary closure resulted from factors other than the insurance matter are entirely false and misleading.”

The commission’s statutory inquiry into the charity is ongoing.

The London charity has previously received warnings from the watchdog after an unofficial speaker at the centre, Massoud Shadjareh, praised Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force.

He called Suleimani, who the UK had designated a terrorist, a “dedicated soldier of Islam” after he was killed by a US drone strike in January 2020.

In another incident last year, trustee Seyed Hashem Moosavi described protesters in Iran as “soldiers of Satan”.

The regulator started an inquiry into the centre in November 2022 over concerns about its governance.

The watchdog said Ms Moody had been appointed manager “due to the trustees’ failure to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities and their failure to protect the charity’s assets”.

Last year The National revealed that the charity had received about £240,000 ($300,465) – £129,556 in 2021 and £109,476 in 2020 – from the government’s Covid-19 furlough programme.

It was given the funding despite having received an official warning from the Charity Commission.