Radical preacher raising millions to buy Scottish island, create Sharia country

Sheikh Yasser al-Habib left Kuwait and reached the UK. This was no simple change of country. He was facing 10 years of imprisonment in absentia for spreading extremism in his home country. Now, two decades later, the London-based preacher is buying a small island in Scotland for his community of Sharia followers.

Al-Habib, 45, is already in "advanced talks" to buy the island of Torsa, off the west coast of Scotland, reports The Daily Mail of the UK. He runs military-style training camps and aims to build schools, hospitals and mosques associated with his organisation on the island.

Here, everyone will practice Islamic law or Sharia.

"They will have their own army, their own justice system, they will manage their own schools and hospitals," said Sarah Zaaimi, a deputy director for communications at the American think tank Atlantic Council, who has worked on Al-Habib. ""It does challenge the notion of sovereignty."

MUSLIMS 'FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD' CAN COME HERE

In a recent video, Sheikh Yasser al-Habib asked his supporters to donate £3.5 million to buy the island. He has made a promise of allowing Muslims "from all over the world to get a visa to live in their new homeland".

“If you want to live free under the banner of the imam [Shia leader], in a special homeland where you feel everything in it reminds you of the awaited mahdi, everything is the Shia homeland â€æ support this project," said Al-Habib.

"Here, my brothers, God willing, we want to build a large mosque, a school and a hawza [Shia seminary]. We want this place to be a homeland to the Shias and the believers," he added.

Al-Habib's plan concerns the people living on the neighbouring island of Luing, they told the Daily Mail.

"I've spent much of my life working in Muslim countries, so I have no issues whatsoever with that community, but this group does seem alarming from what I've just seen now", he told The Daily Mail.

CONCERNS ABOUT THE EXTREMIST CLERIC AL-HABIB

Al-Habib has been accused of giving rise to sectarian sentiments in Britain and in the Arab world between Shia and Sunni Muslims. He has his headquarters in Fulmer, South Buckinghamshire.

He has been raising funds through his controversial channel, Fadak TV. Nicknamed The Mullah of Fulmer, he spreads sectarian views and even hate on his channel, according to UK media reports.

The cleric has a high following among Britain's 400,000 Shia Muslims and millions across the globe.

Now, the next thing on his list is to buy an island for his group, Mahdi (Messiah) Servants Union (MSU).

AL-HABIB'S ORGANISATION BLAMED FOR EMBASSY ATTACKS

The MSU has attacked several foreign embassies on religious issues, such as the Azerbaijani Embassy in August 2022, and the Saudi Arabian Embassy in the same year.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said the attack had been done by "radical religious group members."

The British embassy in Azerbaijan condemned the attacks.

"They will have their own army, their own justice system, they will manage their own schools and hospitals, and people from around the world will be able to migrate to this homeland," said Sarah Zaaimi of American think tank Atlantic Council.

"It does challenge the notion of sovereignty. It's puzzling to me how the UK authorities are allowing such a discourse. You are fundraising for the creation of a sovereign country on the margins of another country," she added.

He also said that he enjoyed the October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel. "Who among us does not enjoy retaliation of the Zionist enemy? We were all buoyed by this news," he said.

The neighbours of the island joked maybe Taylor Swift would buy it, but nobody had imagined it would be Al-Habib.