In the West, Shia and Sunni Islamists Often Make Common Cause

Scenes from the Islamic Human Rights Commission’s Al Quds Day rally in London on June 2, 2019.

The Times of London just published a front-page story on the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British organization tied closely to the Iranian regime. The journalist, Andrew Norfolk, notes that:

Although the IHRC is a Shia organization tied to Tehran, it is happy to work with Sunni Islamists. In December, the IHRC is due to hold its annual ‘Islamophobia conference’ in London. The venue is P21 Gallery, a “charitable trust established to promote contemporary Arab art and culture.”

In fact, P21 is part of an elaborate network of charities and companies seemingly controlled by the proxies for the designated terrorist group Hamas. Dozens of companies with links to Hamas have been run out of one address: 32 Store Street in East London – home of Sayam and Co, an accountancy firm with a very specific set of clients.

In company documents filed with the British government, associated company directors of some of the firms listed at 32 Store Street included Muhammad Sawalha, who, according to the BBC, is “said to have masterminded much of Hamas’s political and military strategy” from London. In 2017, The Times reported that Sawalha had been appointed to Hamas’s political bureau.

Given the IHRC’s links to the murderous Iranian regime, and its willingness to work openly with proxies for the terror group Hamas, it is with interest that we note an upcoming IHRC event later this month. On October 19, the IHRC is broadcasting a documentary, The Uprising, “which tells the story of resistance against racism in Europe.” The IHRC has been closely involved with the film’s production, with its officials interviewed in the documentary and taking part in Q&As at screenings.

Contributors to the documentary feature left-leaning American scholars, as well as one Hatem Bazian, a Berkeley Islamist academic who serves as Professor of Islamic Law and Theology at California’s Zaytuna College. Bazian has a long history of anti-Semitism and ties to Hamas networks in North America. Three other academics, from Berkeley and San Diego State University, are also listed as “contributors.”

We have often written about the intra-Islamist division found in many pockets of American Islamism. But it is important to note intra-Islamist partnerships as well. Despite internecine Sunni-Shia conflict in the Middle East, in the Muslim diaspora, with the help of the Left, Khomeinist and Hamas links seem to be flourishing once again.