Western Iranian And Far-Left Groups Supporting “Al-Quds Day”

The UK-based Islam­ic Human Rights Com­mis­sion (IHRC) has pub­lished a press release call­ing on peo­ple to “Fly the Flag for Pales­tine” to mark the annu­al Inter­na­tion­al Quds Day [Jerusalem Day] on May 7^th. Accord­ing to the release:

April 26, 2021 With the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic pos­ing insur­mount­able chal­lenges to organ­is­ing the tra­di­tion­al Al-Quds Day march­es and ral­lies, plans are once again afoot to remem­ber the peo­ple of Pales­tine and their quest for jus­tice by fly­ing the flag of their country…This year we are call­ing on peo­ple to fly the Pales­tin­ian flag any­where and every­where for the week run­ning up to Quds Day which is on Fri­day 7th May 2021, and to then post about it with hash­tag #FlyTheFlag…Regardless of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, this is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for activists around the world to be intu­itive and come up with var­i­ous activ­i­ties to mark the occa­sion in a safe way. We would rec­om­mend car ral­lies, cre­ative arts, social media clips or the usu­al con­ven­tion­al protests if safe and permitted.

Read the rest here.

The Inter­na­tion­al Quds Day, ini­ti­at­ed by the Iran­ian rev­o­lu­tion­ary regime, has in the past brought togeth­er pro-Iran­ian and Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups. In August 2013, for exam­ple, the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch report­ed on the par­tic­i­pa­tion of UK Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups and pro-Ira­ni­an/Hezbol­lah groups in orga­niz­ing Quds Days demon­stra­tions that year. The press release goes on to iden­ti­fy the orga­ni­za­tions sup­port­ing the “Fly the Flag” cam­paign, includ­ing the fol­low­ing pro-Iran­ian and far-left groups:

• Ahlul Bayt Islam­ic Mis­sion (aka Ahl Al-Bayt Islam­ic Mis­sion), which an Israeli think-tank described as the UK branch of the Ahl Al-Bayt World Assembly.

• Imami­ans UK – a group that describes itself as work­ing togeth­er to achieve the com­mon goal of peace and love through a just society

• Inminds Human Rights Group – an anti-Israel web­site close to the IHRC’s chair­man Mas­soud Shadjareh

• Islam­ic Cen­tre Eng­land – part of the Iran­ian influ­ence net­work in the UK. Found­ed in Decem­ber 1995 and opened offi­cial­ly in 1998

• Neturei Kar­ta – a small extrem­ist Ultra-Ortho­dox Jew­ish sect that oppos­es Zionism

• Scot­tish Pales­tine Sol­i­dar­i­ty Cam­paign (SPSC) – a group chaired by Mick Napi­er, who on his Twit­ter account states he is a “Life­long social­ist, anti-racist. Despise Tories. Only Scot cer­ti­fied free of racism by two Scot­tish courts”.

• Bab-ul-Ilm Soci­ety Ire­land – which accord­ing to its Face­book page, is a Shia non-prof­it Islam­ic devout and cul­tur­al cen­ter, also known as Aza­Khana-e-Zahra (s.a)

• Fatemiyun Den­mark – A Shia group based in Copenhagen

• Imam Ali Moske Den­mark – a large Shia Copen­hagen Mosque opened in 2015, whose con­struc­tion was sup­port­ed by dona­tions deliv­ered through the UK World Fed­er­a­tion of Kho­ja Shia Ith­na-Ash­eri Mus­lim Com­mu­ni­ties, an NGO in Spe­cial Con­sul­ta­tive Sta­tus with the Eco­nom­ic and Social Coun­cil (ECOSOC) of the Unit­ed Nations

• Al-Quds Com­mit­tee Detroit – a US group which on its Face­book page says it is “an effort to peace­ful­ly raise the voice against Zion­ist atroc­i­ties and human rights’ vio­la­tions in occu­pied Palestine.”

• Cana­di­an Defend­ers for Human Rights (CD4HR), whose head pre­vi­ous­ly led a boy­cott cam­paign against Toron­to busi­ness­es sup­port­ing Israel

The Islam­ic Human Rights Com­mis­sion (IHRC) is a UK-based NGO found­ed in 1997. Since 2007, it has had Spe­cial Con­sul­ta­tive Sta­tus with the Eco­nom­ic and Social Coun­cil (ECOSOC) of the Unit­ed Nations.  Its web­site says it works with dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions from Mus­lim and non-Mus­lim back­grounds “to cam­paign for jus­tice for all peo­ples regard­less of their racial, con­fes­sion­al, or polit­i­cal back­ground.” The IHRC is con­sid­ered sup­port­ive of the Iran­ian regime, and for many years has been cen­tral to orga­niz­ing the events of the annu­al Inter­na­tion­al Quds Day.

For more on the IHRC, go here.