Its stated mission is to "champion the rights & duties revealed for human beings" and to "promote a new social [and] international order, based on truth, justice, righteousness [and] generosity, rather than selfish interest.
In the British government’s independent 2023 review of its Prevent counter-extremism programme, directed by William Shawcross, the final report described the organisation as "an Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of ‘extremist links and terrorist sympathies’ ".
[3] Amnesty International UK’s Racial Justice Director Ilyas Nagdee described Shawcross’ review as “riddled with biased thinking, errors and plain anti-Muslim prejudice” and “has no legitimacy.”[4] He accused the Prevent counter-extremism programme of unfairly targeting British Muslims, a claim which has been contested by policy experts.
[20] The organisation also states the following have been released as a result of their campaigning: Mallam Turi, Zeenah Ibrahim from Nigeria; Sheikh Al-Jamri, Bahrain; Huda Kaya, Bekir Yildiz, Recep Tayyep Erdogan, Nurilhak Saatcioglu, Nurcihan Saatioglu, Turkey; Sheikh Ahmed Yassine, Abdul Aziz Rantissi, Rabbi Biton, Sheikh Abdulkareem Obeid, Mustafa Dirani from Israeli detention; Mohammed Mahdi Akef, Egypt; Dr. Muhammad Osman Elamin, Sudan; Cehl Meeah, Mauritius; Abbasi Madani and Ali Behadj, Algeria.
[21] Previous campaigns for 'Prisoners of Faith' focused on US detainees, and include Omar Abdul Rahman (the perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing), his attorney Lynne Stewart (convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005), Ghassen Elashi (convicted of terrorist financing for funnelling $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas), former Black Panther Imam Jamil Al-Amin (serving a life sentence for murder), as well as Egyptian detainees including Khairet El-Shater, Deputy Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, released in 2010 and reincarcerated in 2013 after the coup.
[37]On 3 August 2006, the IHRC asked for judicial review of its allegations that the British government assisted with military shipments to Israel,[38][39] which was eventually denied.
[41] In 2013 it claimed victory in the case, after the British government made a U-turn on the introduction of the full naked body scanners, before the matter came to court.
It has highlighted what it calls "double standards" in his treatment by the press, politicians and the legal system, arguing that the case of al-Masri highlighted societal and judicial double standards, averring to the failure to convict British National Party leader Nick Griffin and his colleague in the same week as convicting al-Masri of similar crimes.
On 5 October 2012, after an eight-year legal battle, he was extradited from the UK to the United States to face terrorism charges[49][50] and on 14 April 2014 his trial began in New York.
[53][54] The organisation also campaigned for the release of Abdel-Rahman's lawyer Lynne Stewart, who was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005,[55] and sentenced to 28 months in prison.
The list of countries it has submitted reports on in the period 2007–2010 are: Iraq, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, France, Sri Lanka, The Philippines, Tunisia, Morocco, India, Bahrain, United Kingdom.
Each volume ends with the views of leading citizens on the given topic and a list of recommendations for the British government to consider at the policy level as a result of the findings.In addition to the BMEG project, IHRC's research section has used the idea of citizenship as a critical lens through which to discuss social issue.
The IHRC has on a number of occasions organised joint statements with various Islamic groups about British terror legislation, and has collaborated with prominent civil liberties lawyers Gareth Peirce and Louise Christian.
[81] Speakers slated to talk on the day were Hatem Bazian (co-founder of Zaytuna College, and Professor at UC Berkeley), Malia Bouattia – Black Students' Officer at the National Union of Students, author and academic Marie Breen Smyth from the University of Surrey, Ramon Grosfoguel a professor from UC Berkeley, Les Levidow from the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Richard Haley, the Chair of Scotland Against Criminalising Communities, Peter Oborne, the Chief political commentator of the Daily Telegraph and associate editor of The Spectator, Salman Sayyid the author and academic based at the University of Leeds, AbdoolKarim Vakil who is Chair of the Research and Documentation Committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, and an academic at King's College London, Lee Jasper, former adviser to the London Mayor, and co-chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts & National Black Members Officer for the Respect Party, and the organisation's Head of Research, Arzu Merali.
[87] Speakers at the conference were: Saied Reza Ameli, Laurens de Rooij, Saeed A. Khan, Ramon Grosfoguel, Sandew Hira, Mary K. Ryan, Sohail Daulatzai, Tasneem Chopra and Rajeesh Kumar.
[95] The alliance is supported by organisations including Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission, Decolonial International Network, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, One Democratic State, The Palestinian Forum in Britain, Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Simon Bolivar Institute.
[97] The IHRC also brought a court challenge against the British government over its decision to allow military supply flights from the USA to Israel to land and refuel in the UK.
[99] Melanie Phillips in The Spectator claimed that in the briefing 'The Blame Game: International Law and the Current Crisis in the Middle East', IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh asked "his followers" and "British Muslims" to provide financial assistance to Hezbollah, and called for the occupation of Israel and "regime change" by Hezbollah on self-defence grounds.
The Spectator and various parts of the right wing press declared that this was a sign that an Iranian backed spate of terror attacks on the UK were imminent, citing in particular the posters and IHRC.
They failed to note that Hizbullah flags at said demonstrations were sported by many including orthodox Rabbis, and the now infamous banners held by amongst others middle class English women appalled at the slaughter.
The article claimed that IHRC Chair Massoud Shadjareh, whilst appearing on the Today programme, made moral equivalents between Muslims in Guantanamo Bay and the fate of Gillian Gibbons in Sudan.
[105] According to The Independent, "The controversial commendation has been branded 'insensitive', as it comes in the wake of the massacre on January 7 this year, in which brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi forced their way into the Paris offices and killed a dozen journalists and cartoonists.
[110] In May 2019, a Henry Jackson Society report stated that co-founder and board member of the IHRC Saied Reza Ameli had been promoted to Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution in Iran.
[111] In 2022 the times reported that as secretary of the Council, Saied Reza Ameli had played a key role in drawing up the government’s tougher rules on the mandatory wearing of the hijab in Iran while serving as Director of the IHRC in Britain.
the white supremacist or liberal structure we’re all suffering at the hands of.”[113] The third director of the IHRC, Nazim Ali, speaking at a rally after the Grenfell Tower fire, condemned “Zionists who give money to the Tory party to kill people in high-rise blocks”.
[115] In February 2024, the IHRC was accused of intimidation [clarification needed] after it criticised the opening of a Charity Commission investigation into the Islamic Centre of England, whose Imam, Seyed Hashem Moosavi, is a direct representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
[116] According to the now defunct Awaaz, the IHRC is "a radical Islamist organisation that uses the language of human rights to promote an extremist agenda including the adoption of shariah law".
[119] Awaaz's claims were echoed by journalist Melanie Phillips, who stated in The Spectator that the IHRC was, "the most conspicuous promoter of Khomeini jihadism in the UK, ... [and] is said to be close to Iran.
Its supporters, including British MPs, US academics and others state that it is a source of good and reliable information for abuses in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
[127] On 6 August 2024, Chair of the IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh, published an open letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in which the organisation blamed “Zionist financiers abroad” for “enabling” the British Far-Right.