Britain has reportedly launched an investigation into its visa rules amid fears that authorities have let hostile Islamist preachers into the country.
UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has reportedly launched a probe into visas given to hostile Islamist clerics from Iran amid fears that they could be using “backdoor” methods to gain access to the UK.
It comes amid increased scrutiny over the activities of Shiite clerics in the country, with some alleging that one major mosque in England belonging to the sect largely serves as a front group for the Iranian regime.
According to a report by The Telegraph, there are concerns within government that hardcore Shiite clerics are gaining access to the country via “religious worker” or “minister of religion” visas, both of which allow certain religious groups to sponsor foreign migrants to work for them in Britain.
The publication reports that a total of 100 clerics from Iran have been issued visas to enter Britain, with it now being feared that some who pose a national security threat to the country are using these religious visas to sneak into the country when the government should be barring them from entry.
“Iran is one of the biggest challenges to UK national interests,” Policy Exchange think-tank leader and Conservative Party House of Lords member Dean Godson remarked. “Religious Worker and Minister of Religion visas cannot be a backdoor entrance for potentially dangerous extremists to enter the country.”
Godson’s think-tank has expressed particular concern about the Islamic Centre of England, a London-based mosque and NGO that is currently under government investigation over its governance.
Although the NGO insists that it is a “purely religious and cultural organisation”, some have alleged that it is, in reality, a front for the Iranian government, with The Telegraph claiming that the group’s leader is directly appointed by Iranian head-of-state Ali Hosseini Khamenei.
Authorities in Britain are also reportedly concerned about some of the guest preachers invited to speak by the mosque, one of whom is said to have previously engaged in Islamic apologetics justifying the execution of gay people.
Another preacher, Sheikh Ahmed Haneef, is said to have given great focus during events held by the NGO to the issue of LGBT activism within the British education system, arguing that a form of religious struggle was now needed to save Britain’s children from indoctrination.
“We are facing right now a kind of social engineering programme where they are trying to indoctrinate children from the ages of three and four years old into the alphabet movement,” Haneef alleged during a talk.
“Academia is all about indoctrinating people, yes, even on the University level, and so we have to be able to resist that,” he went on to say.