Reports say schoolchildren in some mosques in the UK were taught special lessons in praise of Iranian IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.
At least six mosques across the country organised events to honour the former Commander of IRGC Quds Force as a “martyr” after he was killed.
On January 3, 2020, the US military, on the order of President Donald Trump, killed Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport, saying that he had been "actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."
Photographs posted on social media show children sitting in an unnamed mosque while being taught about Soleimani.
Reports say at the Idara-e-Jaaferiya mosque in Tooting, South London, and in Hammersmith, West London, Iranian officials made speeches praising the IRGC commander days after his death.
In Manchester, the Islamic Institute said it was holding a “commemoration of the martyrs” killed by “the aggressor and criminal US regime”.
In Birmingham, the Imam Reza Centre said it was honouring “our beloved martyrs” Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, an Iraqi militia commander who died alongside him.
The revelation comes as UK lawmakers voted Thursday to ask the government to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
Soleimani, who was Iran’s top military and intelligence operator outside its borders, was in charge of supporting and organizing militant proxy forces, including the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militia groups that have repeatedly attacked US forces.