Hate cleric raises £3m to create Islamic homeland on Scottish island

A firebrand cleric who has been accused of spreading hate has raised more than £3 million to buy a small British island and turn it into his own Islamic state.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, 45 – who claimed asylum in Britain 20 years ago after fleeing his native Kuwait – and his followers are in advanced talks to buy the remote isle of Torsa, off the west coast of Scotland.

The extremist scholar, who already runs military-style training camps, hopes his organisation can build its own school, hospital and mosque on the island, where it intends to practise sharia law.

In a video encouraging supporters to donate towards their £3.5 million target, the cleric says he will negotiate with the Government to allow Muslims ‘from all over the world’ to be given a visa in order for them to live in their new ‘homeland’.

Residents on the neighbouring island of Luing reacted with concern when The Mail on Sunday revealed his plans to them.

One man said: ‘I’ve spent much of my life working in Muslim countries so have no issues whatsoever with that community, but this group do seem alarming from what I’ve just seen now.’ 

Al-Habib, who is accused of stirring up sectarian hatred in Britain and in the Arab world between Shias and rival Sunni Muslims, has his ‘global headquarters’ in the picturesque village of Fulmer, South Buckinghamshire.

He has been fundraising through his controversial satellite channel Fadak TV, which he has run for several years from a £2 million converted church hall.

Despite repeated warnings from the regulator Ofcom, al-Habib – nicknamed the ‘Mullah of Fulmer’ – has been permitted to continue broadcasting his lectures, spreading hate and inciting violence towards those from the Sunni faith at home and abroad.

The cleric, who preaches only in Arabic, has amassed a huge following among Britain’s 400,000 Shias and millions more across the world.

Now he has set his sights on the uninhabited island of Torsa, in Argyll, where he wants to establish a new ‘homeland’ for his group called the Mahdi [Messiah] Servants Union (MSU).

Torsa, which is one of the Slate Islands, is just over a mile long and has one farmhouse. It is accessible only by private boat from Luing – itself reached via a ferry from the island of Seil, which in turn connects to the mainland via a bridge – and has not been permanently inhabited for more than 50 years. Sources told The MoS that two representatives of the group have visited the island and filmed it as they were shown around.

Al-Habib has since said on Fadak TV that Torsa, which comes with two little adjoining islets, is an ‘irreplaceable opportunity’.

Encouraging supporters to donate, he said Torsa will become an Islamic ‘homeland’ which they will create to prepare for the coming of their messiah, known as mahdi.

In one three-minute video, al-Habib says: ‘If you want to live free under the banner of the imam [Shia leader], in a special homeland where you feel everything in it reminds you of the awaited mahdi, everything is the Shia homeland…support this project.’

In the same video, another man, who is filming from Torsa, says: ‘Here, my brothers, God willing, we want to build a large mosque, a school and a hawza [Shia seminary]. We want this place to be a homeland to the Shias and the believers.’ The footage switches to images of al-Habib’s ‘army’, called Al-Shurta Al-Khamis, training and doing drills in the grounds of his mosque in Fulmer.

In another video, al-Habib, who spent nearly three months in jail in Kuwait for insulting the Sunni faith, said the MSU will obtain the right for Shias from around the world to immigrate to the island.

One Luing resident said: ‘I’m not sure the Women’s Institute are going to stand for this. We’d welcome just about anyone, but this doesn’t seem appropriate’, adding that locals had been joking that singer Taylor Swift might buy Torsa.

Last night, Sarah Zaaimi, a deputy director for communications at the American think tank Atlantic Council, who has researched al-Habib, said: ‘They will have their own army, their own justice system, they will manage their own schools and hospitals, and people from around the world will be able to migrate to this homeland.

‘It does challenge the notion of sovereignty. It’s puzzling to me how the UK authorities are allowing such a discourse. You are fundraising for the creation of a sovereign country on the margins of another country.’

Al-Habib has repeatedly come to the attention of the authorities since his arrival in the UK in 2004, and MPs have tried to shut down his TV channel without success.

In June 2022, a film called The Lady Of Heaven, written by al-Habib, was pulled from Cineworld cinemas, and some branches of Vue, after hundreds of Sunni Muslims protested against the film in cities such as Birmingham and Sheffield. They accused it of blasphemy as it depicted the Prophet himself, which Islam forbids. The cinema chains stopped showing the film as they feared for the safety of their staff, but critics accused Cineworld and Vue of ‘self-censorship.’

In one of his speeches, al-Habib called former Home Secretary Suella Braverman an ‘animal’ after she said she may impose restrictions on pro-Gaza marches.

In a video broadcast after the attacks in Israel on October 7 last year, al-Habib said: ‘Who among us does not enjoy retaliation of the Zionist enemy? We were all buoyed by this news.’ He did, however, criticise Hamas for desecrating bodies and raping women.

In another clip, al-Habib urges the killing of Wahhabis – a pejorative term for Saudi rulers – their clergy and officials.

Khalid Mahmood, the former Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said: ‘This man has constantly attacked people of the Sunni faith with Fadak TV, which should not be allowed.

‘If a far-Right group did this, there would be action against it, and so Ofcom should take action against him. It’s now even more absurd that there are paramilitary activities taking place at his premises. I want his channel closed down.’

Despite attempts at contacting al-Habib, he did not comment.