For a man who keeps telling everyone he is a man of peace and a promoter of human rights, Saeed Shehabi, a Bahraini dissident living in London, has a nasty habit of praising warmongers, Jew haters, and killers. In February, Focus on Western Islamism (FWI)reported on Shehabi’s efforts to promote events organized by the Iranian embassy in London to commemorate the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Saeed Shehabi and the VoB have said nice things about the leaders of a regime that hates the United Kingdom.
When challenged about his efforts—performed under the pseudonym of John Hughes—to promote the commemoration of the death of a leader who ordered the execution of thousands of Iranian citizens during his reign, called for the destruction of Israel, and led a regime responsible for the death of British citizens, Shehabi emphasized the Ayatollah’s status as “a senior religious authority,” declaring that “His demise, like other senior scholars like [Khomeini], is marked with Quran recitation and possibly, some talk about his life and religious thought.”
Well, as it turns out, Shehabi has some more explaining to do, but this time he’s not responding to emails from FWI, which has come into possession of a newsletter published by the Voice of Bahrain (Vob)—an outlet to which Shehabi has deep connections—lionizing Hassan Nasrallah, who, in 2002, declared that if all Jews “gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” That same year, he declared that Palestinians should export the practice of suicide bombings throughout the world.
In a 2024 issue of its newsletter (which is now deleted from its website), VoB published a statement by the Bahraini Opposition Forces “on the martyrdom of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.” The text offered “sincere condolences and congratulations” to Nasrallah on his “martyrdom,” referring to him as “the leader of this great and immortal resistance.” “Resistance” is an odd way to describe the actions of a leader who once described Israel as “a cancerous entity and the root of all the crises and wars” and stated that he and his supporters “cannot acknowledge the existence of a state called Israel, not even far in the future, as some people have tried to suggest.”
As it turns out, Vob is closely associated with the Bahrain Freedom Movement, which Shehabi co-founded, and lists its address as a P.O. Box that an online search indicates is owned by an “S Shehabi.” Shehabi has not responded to FWI inquiries about the pro-Nasrallah statement with good reason. By lionizing Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, an organization the U.K. government has designated a terrorist organization, VoB may have violated U.K. law, which prohibits expressions of support for such organizations.
Shehabi has himself praised the leader of a proscribed organization. In late 2024, The Times reported that in 2020 Shehabi “allegedly tweeted that Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC killed in a US drone strike, was a hero.”
The Times further reported that Shehabi
is reported to have said: “He had heart of iron, he feared only God, and looked down on arrogant people. Fair people described him as courageous, intelligent, wise, gentle and humble, but his enemies found no faults other than his resistance to tyranny.” The IRGC is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and Soleimani was subject to UK sanctions.
In response to the controversy, a spokesperson for the Dar Alhekma Trust, a U.K. charity where Shehabi served as trustee, declared that Shehabi “did not go beyond describing the commander’s character.” Shehabi himself declared that “My comments did not endorse violence but expressed solidarity with the oppressed.”
The upshot is this: Saeed Shehabi and the VoB have said nice things about the leaders of a regime that hates the United Kingdom. Iranian leaders have plotted numerous attacks on U.K. citizens and institutions, including two U.K.-based journalists in 2024. In 2005, U.K.Prime Minister Tony Blair lamented the deaths of numerous U.K. soldiers who perished as a result of Iran-made roadside bombs in Iraq. On October 7, fourteen U.K. citizens were killed by Hamas, an Iranian proxy.
Shehabi is in his seventies, but at some point, all this should attract the attention of the Metropolitan Police (who have yet to respond to an FWI inquiry).
When will Shehabi’s shilling for Iranian terrorists catch up with him?
Will it?
