Organiser of pro-Iran London ‘hate rally’ as soon as met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to offer him a file on Islamophobia in Britain

The organiser of a pro-Iran London ‘hate rally’ once met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to give him a dossier on Islamophobia in Britain. 

Massoud Shadjareh, co-founder and chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), has been promoting a demonstration in Westminster to mark Al Quds Day on Sunday. 

A planned march was banned by the Home Secretary on Tuesday to prevent ‘serious public disorder’, but a static demonstration is set to go ahead. 

While the IHRC claims to protect human rights, the group was described in a government-ordered review as having ‘extremist links and terrorist sympathies’ and its leaders are openly sympathetic to Tehran. 

A video from the IHRC’s social media channels shows Mr Shadjareh recalling a meeting he had with Khamenei – who was killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike.  

Mr Shadjareh, who was born in Iran in the 1970s, said he had been summoned to describe the findings of an IHRC report entitled, Environment of Hate: The New Normal for British Muslims in the UK.

He told an audience at an event: ‘We did a report about Islamophobia, how the environment is created by politicians by the media and in that environment people became so bad that even sometimes themselves they were shocked at how they had become so racist.

‘I was asked to explain this research, this book, to Ayatollah Khamenei and in the small gathering I explained the whole findings of this.’

The IHRC chairman said the despot had listened ‘very attentively’ before replying:  ‘This is because they want to destroy your confidence in yourselves as Muslims and in your deen [all-encompassing faith]. Don’t let it happen.’ 

Revealing how inspired he was by Khamenei’s words, Mr Shadjareh said: ‘Day in day out, when these Zionists and neocons are attacking us, abusing us, writing and demonising us, is because they want to remove this confidence from you.

‘Our confidence comes in the fact that we have got the most powerful entity backing us and guiding us and this is why we are here and this is why we will be victorious if we unite.’

Other senior figures in the IHRC have also spoken out to praise Khamenei.

They include its spokesman, Faisal Bodi, who described the late dictator as a man of ‘principle and integrity’.

Asked if he would hold a picture of Khamenei, Mr Bodi told the BBC: ‘Happily. I would rather hold a picture of the Ayatollah than Keir Starmer or Donald Trump. He was a man of principle, a man of integrity, a man who stood for justice.’

He added: ‘In the same way I would happily hold a picture of Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X and many other towering personalities.’

Mr Bodi added that Khamenei ‘stood on the side of Palestine’. He also quoted Tehran’s figures for the number of protesters that had been killed during a recent wave of street protests – rather than independently verified figures that are in the tens of thousands. 

The IHRC said yesterday that it ‘strongly condemned’ the decision to ban its march and would continue with a static protest.

Shabana Mahmood had said the move was necessary ‘to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East’. 

The Home Secretary added: ‘Should a stationary demonstration proceed, the police will be able to apply strict conditions.

‘I expect to see the full force of the law applied to anyone spreading hatred and division instead of exercising their right to peaceful protest.’

Neither the Government nor police have powers under the Public Order Act to ban a static demonstration.

Police chiefs believe the demonstration could potentially attract 12,000 people or more and are planning to use the River Thames as a barrier to keep rival groups apart. 

At least a thousand officers from the Metropolitan Police and forces around the country are being drafted in to patrol the crowds, with more made available if needed.

Met Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan warned the measures taken by police cannot ‘guarantee’ disorder will not take place but it is hoped the measures will mitigate disruption.

Speaking to reporters today, he said: ‘While we will protect the right to freedom of speech, there is a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and anyone who crosses the line can expect to face arrest.’

The protest has drawn criticism over apparent backing for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Government banned the march but people can still legally assemble and take part in a so-called ‘static protest’.

Mr Adelekan said this would be ‘immeasurably easier to police’.

But political violence tsar Lord Walney has warned this could still cause serious disorder and blamed a ‘loophole’ in public order laws depriving ministers of the power to stop rallies that stay in one location.

All protests and counter-protests will take place between Vauxhall and Lambeth bridges and are permitted between 1pm and 3pm, the Met said.

Counter protesters can assemble on the Millbank side of the Thames. Lambeth Bridge will be closed, with access only for emergency vehicles.

The force needed a ‘unique plan’ to respond to ‘unique circumstances’, Mr Adelekan said but stressed this would not set a precedent.

‘I’ve been in this organisation for 31 years, I cannot think of a time when we used it.

‘So as far as I’m concerned it’s new, it’s new in my generation of policing,’ he said, adding: ‘It will keep both sides apart whilst also allowing people to protest within the law.’

Mr Adelekan said anticipating protest turnout was ‘not an exact science’ but that it was his ‘professional judgment that numbers I think will go up to 6,000 in terms of the counter protest, which is a significant number when you combine all of those groups.

‘I caveat that by saying you could see significantly more based on the current political situation’, later adding that police anticipate a ‘similar number or more’ supporting the protest.

Officers are having to be redeployed from neighbourhood policing to cover the event and patrol Jewish neighbourhoods in the capital, Mr Adelekan said.