Late last month, an unusual piece of news came out of Houston, Texas. The Houston Islamic Education Center (IEC) posted a YouTube video of children singing a Shia religious song pledging allegiance to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A comparison of the background of the video with the publicly available images of the IEC shows a striking similarity, leading to the conclusion that the video was likely shot on location.
Following backlash over the video, the IEC made it private on YouTube. Some saw it as an innocent song with a religious message, while others saw it as a political song in support of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the Supreme Leader, a celebration of Iran’s soft power influence in the United States. Even those who are skeptical that the song has an ominous meaning and see it as a purely religious performance cannot ignore the Iranian influence lurking beneath the surface. The IEC is a Shia community center that includes a mosque, runs community programs, and runs a K-12 private school (Al-Hadi School) and a Sunday school. To support the local community, it operates a free health clinic, has a COVID-19 financial assistance program, offers scholarships for higher education, promotes interfaith dialogue and more. No less important, the IEC clearly supports the pro-Iranian regime ideology and may be part of a larger network.
The IEC currently leases its space from the Alavi Foundation, which leases real estate and provides financial assistance to Shia organizations, some of which are clearly linked to the Iranian regime. A civil suit against the foundation was brought by the US attorney in Manhattan, who alleged that the foundation provided services to the Iranian government and funneled money through the bank Mell, which is sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for services to the Islamic faith. Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Although some observers have argued that the relationship between the IEC and the foundation is purely tenant-landlord, the facts suggest otherwise. According to the website of the Alavi Foundation, IEC operates as a book distribution center for the foundation and received a grant to support the service.
In addition, the IEC has signed petitions in support of the fund.
While the Alavi Foundation supports institutions and causes that may not be pro-Iranian, the IEC is not one of them. It has a history of hosting pro-Islamic Revolution events and hosting Khomeinist, anti-American speakers.
For example, on June 5, 2020, the IEC attended a commemoration of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, organized by the British organization AhlulBayt Islamic Mission, which is endorsed by members of the Iranian regime. The event was held in partnership with Light of Guidance, which participated in the 2020 International Jerusalem Day conference organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a London-based organization with highly questionable links to Hezbollah. A terrorist organization listed by the United States and the United Kingdom. Speakers at the event included Marzieh Hashemi, an American-born Press TV journalist who has been linked to Iran’s espionage operation, and Usama Abdulghani, a cleric who promotes conspiracy theories such as the claim that the US and Israel created and support ISIS. Calls by Iran and Hezbollah to destroy Israel and the Jews. The IEC organized several events with Abdulghani, often in honor of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Over the years, it has also organized several events in Khomeini’s memory and featured Ayatollah Khamenei in its publications.
Moreover, the IEC has strong ties with the Muslim Congress, which was founded in 2005 by an IEC leader. The Muslim Congress is a Khomeinist organization and has been characterized as such by the Los Angeles Times. Similarly, according to Al Zahra Foundation in Nottingham, Hojatoleslam Maulana Ghulam Hurr Shabbir, a Pakistani-Iranian-educated Islamic scholar, was “directly appointed by the office of the Supreme Leader as the resident Aalim of Imam-e-Juma and IEC in Houston. to 2015.” This suggests that Iran’s supreme leader’s office, which has since been sanctioned by the US, may have appointed a senior official to the Houston-based IEC. Shabiri has been active in many Shia communities in the UK and the US.
The presence of pro-Iranian regime groups in the US is worrisome because Iran is known for using education, religion and culture not only to expand its influence around the world, but sometimes to exploit them. networks for operational recruitment for terrorism. Consider the case of Al-Mustafa International University, which has branches in more than 50 countries. The institution has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for allowing the IRGC Quds Force to conduct intelligence operations using the Al-Mustafa student body for recruitment. Although Al-Mustafa has no branches in the United States, the IEC embraces the very Khomeinist ideology he embodies.
Iran’s soft power influence operations have also intensified in South America. According to a 2013 report by Argentina’s prosecutors, the Islamic Republic used “local clandestine intelligence networks” under the guise of religious and cultural programs to develop “the ability to provide logistical, economic and operational support for terrorist attacks.” the Islamic regime decided. Mexico has been fertile ground for Tehran, with a Univision documentary once revealing that an Iranian operative working with Mexican students attempted to carry out cyber attacks in the United States. The AhlulBayt Islamic Mission, with which the Houston-based IEC partnered in 2020, is considered the British branch of the Iran-based Ahlul Bayt World Assembly, of which Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, himself a US-sanctioned terrorist, is considered a member of its supreme council.
These platforms in the United States provide an enabling environment ripe for recruitment by the Iranian regime. By shortening the path to radicalization, it can grow into a domestic terrorist threat, as we have seen recently with Iran continuing to carry out attacks on American soil and engaging in transnational repression. Just this month, a gunman was arrested outside the home of Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian-American dissident who was the victim of an Iranian intelligence kidnapping plot. There are active threats against current and former US officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The US intelligence community has repeatedly warned that “Iran … remains committed to developing networks in the US, a goal it has pursued for more than a decade.” IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani has threatened to attack America from inside his house in several calls to avenge the death of his predecessor, Qassem Soleimani.
Thus, the influence of Iranian soft power is inherently risky given the nature of the regime in Tehran. Policy makers should encourage the exploitation of these tactics, which on their face seem benign, to become something more sinister.
Moshe Kwiat is an OSINT and SOCMINT analyst specializing in disinformation and influence operations and a graduate researcher at Reichman University. He is @Mokwi8 on Twitter.
Jason M. Brodsky is the Policy Director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI). His research interests include Iranian governance dynamics, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Iranian proxies and partner networks. He’s @JasonMBrodsky on Twitter.
