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Britain drags feet on IRGC terror designation as Iran-linked center allegedly sells extremist merchandise
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is facing intense criticism over its failure to swiftly outlaw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The development comes as a London-based Islamic center has been accused of selling merchandise supporting terrorism.
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 head of the center is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader. The letter of the appointment is publicly read during the inauguration ceremony. There is not a shred of doubt that the center is used to peddle the influence of Iran’s political Islam. It is also used to recruit disgruntled British individuals who are sent to Iran for training.”
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.
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A Google Maps photo showing the Islamic Centre of England in London. (Google Maps)
The pro-Hezbollah and pro–Islamic Republic goods were reportedly sold at a bazaar Dec. 14, 2025, according to the paper. One key ring displayed the words, “With the kindness of God, Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is our leader.” The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei, would order the murder of thousands of Iranian demonstrators just weeks later.
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.”
A British Union flag flies from a souvenir stall near the Houses of Parliament in London Oct. 27, 2025. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
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“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.”
In this photo released Jan. 6, 2020, by the official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fourth from left, leads a prayer over the coffins of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his comrades who were killed in Iraq in a U.S. drone strike at the Tehran University campus, in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Kearns, who is the shadow minister for home affairs for the opposition Conservative party, is now demanding that the Islamic Center be shuttered.
“These latest revelations of terrorist tat being sold by the Islamic Centre of England are yet more evidence of why the center must be closed and those responsible for propagating terrorist propaganda face the law,” she told the Telegraph.
“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.”
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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.”
The EU announced last week that it has classified the IRGC a terrorist entity. The U.S., Canada and Australia have previously designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization. The IRGC played a key role in the massacre of Iranian demonstrators last month.
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The proliferation of pro-Iran activism unfolded last weekend in London. Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party in the United Kingdom, posted on X, “When people in Britain are chanting support for the thuggish regime in Iran, we are in serious trouble as a nation.”
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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.
Updated:
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel was awarded the European Order of Merit on Tuesday. Merkel warned that Europe could no longer take peace and security for granted following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She also said changes in US security policy showed old certainties were fading.
Spain’s national court announced on Monday that it had acquitted Shakira of tax fraud in a case more than a decade old, and ordered the country’s tax authorities to repay her tens of millions of dollars.
The ruling is part of the Colombian pop star’s yearslong legal battle with the Spanish authorities. Upholding an appeal she filed, it orders the state to return 55 million euros (about $64 million) plus interest to the singer. The court ruled in April but documents were released on Monday.
At the heart of the case were allegations that Shakira, 49, had been a resident of Spain in 2011 and therefore owed taxes to the Spanish government that year. Spain’s national court said that hadn’t been proven.
To be considered a tax resident in Spain, a person has to spend more than 183 days of the year in the country, have their main economic activities based there or have a spouse or children living there.
The court said in its statement that Shakira had been in Spain for 163 days in 2011. Spain’s tax authorities failed to prove “that the singer had the core of her economic interests in Spain and family relationships with residents in our country” during that year, according to the court.
José Luis Prada, Shakira’s lawyer, said in a statement that the ruling “represents a significant personal and reputational vindication for Shakira after more than eight years of litigation.”
The ruling announced Monday applies only to 2011. In a separate case, prosecutors had accused Shakira — whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll — of six counts of tax fraud, charging that she had failed to pay €14.5 million in income taxes to the Spanish government from 2012 to 2014.
In that case, prosecutors had sought an eight-year prison sentence and a fine of more than €23 million.
In November 2023, just before a trial was set to begin in Barcelona, Shakira reached a deal with Spanish prosecutors under which she agreed to receive a three-year suspended sentence and pay a fine of €7 million.
Shakira has repeatedly denied the accusations and said that she was not living in Spain during those years.
In a statement on Monday, the singer said that the ruling ended her fight with the Spanish tax authorities and that she had relocated to Miami. She said that she had been made an example of in order “to send a threatening message to the rest of the taxpayers.”
“For nearly a decade, I have been treated as guilty,” she said, adding: “Today, that narrative falls apart.”
According to court documents, prosecutors said that Shakira had bought a house in Barcelona in 2012 that became a primary home for her along with her former partner, the soccer star Gerard Piqué, and their son.
But the court found that in 2011 “there was no marital bond” between Shakira and a Spanish resident, nor were her children residing in Spain, according to the statement on Monday.
Shakira and Mr. Piqué announced their separation in 2022.
Punch the monkey makes new friends after bullying video goes viral
This video shows Punch, a young macaque in Japan who has gone viral, seeking physical contact not from his stuffed toy, but from another monkey, eventually climbing onto its back for a vital social behavior for young macaques known as the “piggyback ride.” Punch gained fame after his birth last year and his abandonment by his mother.
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Two American nationals were reportedly arrested in Japan on Sunday after one allegedly entered the enclosure of Punch, the young macaque at Ichikawa City Zoo who became famous online for his inseparable bond with a stuffed orangutan toy.
Videos circulating online appear to show a person dressed in an emoji costume climbing over a barrier into the Japanese macaque enclosure before dropping a small stuffed toy near the animals, startling them and causing them to retreat, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The suspects were identified as a 24-year-old college student and a 27-year-old self-described singer, AFP reported.
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This photo taken on Feb. 19, 2026 shows Punch sitting with his stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo. (JIJI PRESS / AFP via Getty Images)
Zoo staff quickly intervened, and authorities said neither suspect made physical contact with the monkeys, according to AFP.
Ichikawa Police told AFP the two men were arrested on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business.
One suspect was not cooperating with police, while the other denied the allegations, according to reports citing NHK.
In a statement posted to X on May 17, Ichikawa City Zoo confirmed the pair had been turned over to police and said safety inspections were conducted afterward.
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Punch is seen with his stuffed animal on Feb. 20, 2026. (Photo by David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Officials added that no animals were injured during the incident.
“Around 10:50 today, there was an intruder in Saruyama,” the zoo wrote. “We are informing you that the two individuals, including the intruder in question, have been handed over to the police.”
The zoo also announced temporary viewing-area closures and enhanced security measures while operations continued as scheduled.
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Punch became a viral sensation earlier this year after zoo staff gave him a stuffed orangutan toy for comfort. (@20230605x_x via Storyful)
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The monkey had been abandoned by his mother shortly after birth in July 2025, prompting zookeepers to hand-raise him.
Fox News Digital’s Khloe Quill contributed to this report.
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