Terror risk at UK kids’ camp? UKLFI warns Islamic camp may be tool for radicalization
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| Camp Wilayah (photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X) |
An Islamic summer camp for preteens in the UK may be a tool for extremism and radicalization, thus breaching the Terrorism Act, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) warned on Sunday.
These concerns relate to Camp Wilayah, which is set to take place in the Phasels Wood Activity Centre between August 22 and August 25. It is run by the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM), a UK-based Shi’ite Muslim organisation established in 2003.
The camp’s stated aim is to allow “young campers [aged 8-13] to enjoy the outdoors, make new friends, and deepen their understanding of Islamic values – all in a fun and inspiring environment.” Girls who attend are required to wear the hijab and are mainly segregated “to ensure minimal overlap between girls and boys.”
AIM overtly supports the Islamic Republic and its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The charity sells both original works and commissioned translations on its website, including three books by Khamenei: Tabyeen: The Neglected Obligation, The Compassionate Family, and Islamic Beliefs: Reclaiming the Narrative.
It also features former Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic Government and several books honoring IRGC jihadists.
The UKLFI highlighted AIM’s pro-Iranian regime dogma and claimed it “disseminates revolutionary Islamist ideology, glorifies martyrdom, and spreads antisemitic, conspiratorial, and extremist content online, including support for Hamas and Holocaust inversion.”
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Involving British authorities
It also warned the council heads that AIM poses a serious risk of radicalizing children and breaching terrorism and public order laws. “AIM promotes isolation from Western society, denigrates integration, and glorifies violent resistance.”
The UKLFI suggested that AIM may be breaching Sections 5 and 18, 19, 21, and 23 of the Public Order Act 1986, Section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, and Section 47 of the Children Act 1989.
UKLFI’s Caroline Turner told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the goal is for the authorities to investigate this camp to ensure that children are not being radicalized, but that it is not taking legal action.
While Iran and the IRGC are not proscribed in the UK, Hamas is, and Turner said that AIM has published justifications of Hamas’s October 7 massacre and has expressed opinions or beliefs that support the terrorist organization, which is potentially an offence under section 12 (1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000.
“We were concerned that AIM’s social media activity includes posts that advance an extremist ideology and promote antisemitic narratives,” she said.
“These include the glorification of martyrdom in violent conflicts,” such as statements saying that “AIM honors the martyrs of Palestine and Lebanon who have been killed by the Zionist regime,” Turner detailed.
“Glorifying individuals who have died in the context of the armed conflict with Israel risks encouraging others to seek martyrdom through violence and frames death in conflict as an aspiration,” she said.
“AIM’s dangerous and violent worldview could incite hatred and violence,” Turner added, “and we are concerned that this ideology would be inculcated in the children at its camp.”
The NUFDI report
The charity and the camp were mentioned in a May 2025 report on the Islamic Republic’s influence in the UK. The report, carried out by NUFDI, was previously written about by the Post.
NUFDI said that AIM’s London office is operated by the World Ahlul Bayt Foundation, which is currently directed by Hojjat al-Islam Muhammad Hassan Akhtari, a supposed co-founder of Hezbollah and a close ally of Khamenei.
It also claimed that AIM frequently posts controversial and partisan content on X/Twitter and its website, but removes it quickly soon after.
AIM also runs an e-commerce store called the House of Taha, which sells flags and insignia of Iranian-backed militias such as the Popular Mobilization Forces and Hezbollah, as well as texts from Khamenei and other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders.
According to The Times, on October 12, 2023, AIM’s Instagram account shared a message saying that “a flood was inevitable” and the “Zionists brought this disaster on themselves”.
Lord Walney, the British government’s former extremism adviser, told The Times in May: “We cannot allow propaganda and influence from this theocratic dictatorship to be spread to children in the UK.”
“It is deeply alarming that schoolchildren are being taken to these camps. This raises further questions about the influence of Iran here in the UK,” he told the publication.
AIM’s response
In response to the reports on Sunday, AIM released a statement on Monday saying it “firmly rejects the defamatory and politicized claims made by certain media outlets, based on allegations from the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).”
“These accusations, framed in inflammatory language around ‘radicalization’ and ‘extremism,’ are part of a targeted smear campaign against a lawful British Muslim organization engaged in religious education, youth work, and community development.”
It added that it has continuously operated in “full compliance with UK law” and that Camp Wilayah has been operating as a “safe, well-supervised summer retreat for children” for 20 years.
AIM added that the claims of indoctrination at the camp are a means of “sowing fear and suspicion of Muslims” and are “Islamophobic in tone and discriminatory in impact.”
It lambasted the UKLFI specifically, calling the organization a “front group operating on behalf of the illegitimate and genocidal Zionist entity” and said that the platforming of it in the UK media is a sign of “decaying sovereignty in the UK.”
“We will not accept defamation, intimidation, or the outsourcing of UK civil society policy to the proxies of a foreign regime committing genocide against the indigenous people of Palestine.”
It made similar remarks following the publication of The Times report in May, saying, “Unlike the roughly 3,000 Zionist organizations in the UK, [AIM] neither takes orders from nor represents the interest of any foreign power.”
“We are proud of our record in opposing the 140-year Zionist campaign of genocide against the people of the Levant, which has included forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, among many other crimes.”
According to AIM, “Times readers should ask themselves why this newspaper is so invested in laundering propaganda for the State of Israel and attempts to smear British citizens on behalf of a hostile and illegitimate foreign state.”
Turner told the Post that AIM’s statement about the UKLFI “illustrates that they are an extremist organization that doesn’t recognize the State of Israel or its legitimacy, even though it is a recognized state and a member of the United Nations.”
“Our statement was not Islamophobic or discriminatory, but merely concerned that children would be influenced by an extremist organization and inculcated with its views,” Turner continued.
She added that the matter should be handled by local authorities and the organization Prevent, which identifies individuals at risk of radicalization, offering them support and interventions, and countering extremist ideologies.
“The UKLFI is an independent organization that is independent of the State of Israel,” Turner further said.
99% of ALL terrorist attacks carried out (globally) in just one month on record were by Islamists, explains senior Canadian intelligence veteran, Phil Gurski.
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