Urgent safeguarding concerns have been raised regarding a children’s summer camp run by an extremist group which glorifies martyrdom and spreads extremist content online.
“Camp Wilayah”, a summer camp for children aged 8 to 13, is scheduled to take place in Kings Langley, just outside London in August. It is organised by the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM), a UK-based group aligned with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. AIM disseminates revolutionary Islamist ideology, glorifies martyrdom, and spreads antisemitic, conspiratorial, and extremist content online, including support for Hamas and Holocaust inversion. As reported in https://www.uklfi.com The UK Lawyers for Israel's website.
UK Lawyers for Israel has called for urgent action to prevent radicalisation at a children’s summer camp run by Iran-linked extremist group.
While marketed as a space to deepen Islamic values in an “Islamic atmosphere”, the camp is being hosted by a group that openly promotes the revolutionary Islamist ideology of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Reports describe AIM as the British chapter of the AhlulBayt World Assembly, an Iranian-backed NGO operating globally to disseminate Ayatollah Khomeini’s vision of Islamic revolution. AIM’s publications include multiple texts authored by Khamenei, literature on martyrdom, and materials aimed at promoting strict adherence to Shia Islam.
AIM’s use of social media to disseminate extremist content that is antisemitic, conspiratorial, and incites hatred and violence. One video, titled “Know Thy Enemy” features a speaker describing Jews as the “harshest”, “squatters,” “settlers,” and “violent,” while accusing Israel, the so-called “squatter state”, of having a policy of murdering children. He calls moderate Muslims who may be tolerant of Israel “filth”, claiming that such Muslims have distorted the Quran to suit their “satanic desires” and referring to them as “devils”. Other posts glorify and encourage martyrdom and justify Hamas’s 7 October 2023 atrocities by re framing them as legitimate acts of resistance, omitting any mention of attacks on civilians, and likening Gaza to Nazi concentration camps. Countless posts accuse Israel of genocide and liken it to Apartheid.
These posts, together with several additional examples of AIM’s social media material, indicate the grave threat to children’s psychological wellbeing and the serious risk of radicalisation posed by AIM. Further, AIM promotes isolation from Western society, denigrates integration, and glorifies violent resistance.
AIM's website disputes these accusations....
In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
"The Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM) firmly rejects the defamatory and politicised claims made by certain media outlets, based on allegations from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). These accusations, framed in inflammatory language around “radicalisation” and “extremism,” are part of a targeted smear campaign against a lawful British Muslim organisation engaged in religious education, youth work, and community development.
AIM has always operated in full compliance with UK law. Our programmes are transparent, fully compliant with relevant regulations, and centred on safety, values, and faith. Camp Wilayah, now in its second decade, is a safe, well-supervised summer retreat for children.
The claim that Camp Wilayah is an activity for indoctrination is a deliberate and harmful accusation, aimed at sowing fear and suspicion of Muslims who maintain a strong commitment to faith and identity. It is Islamophobic in tone and discriminatory in impact."