A Shia sect claims to be raising money to buy a remote territory in Scotland, which it would rule under Shia law.
Sheikh Yasser al-Habib and his Mahdi Servants Union (MSU) group are preparing such a bid. The cleric was in advanced talks to buy Torsa, a 270-acre island off the coast of Oban, Western Scotland, reports the Telegraph. To date, nearly £3 million (€3,557,280) of a £3.5 million target has been raised towards this target.
An MSU supporter filmed Torsa and two smaller neighbouring islands. This footage was included in videos posted to his Fadak TV channel, based in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, in which al-Habib says the island represents an “irreplaceable opportunity” to create a “homeland” for his brand of Shia Islam, administered under his interpretation of Sharia law. Promised new buildings include a Mosque, a hospital, and a hawsa (Shia seminary).
This is starting to sound like the formula for a TV sitcom—think Four Lions meets Father Ted—that few would be brave enough to commission. Yet it has a more sinister side. Al-Habib even offers to take over certain UK Home Office roles, by promising to negotiate with the UK government to allow Muslims from “all over the world” to be given tourist visas.
But not just any Muslims. MSU leader Al-Habib sought asylum from Kuwait in the UK in 2004. He had been jailed in his homeland for “sectarian” offences against the Sunni branch of Islam. Subsequently, his Kuwaiti citizenship was revoked when he called Aisha, the wife of the Prophet Mohammed, an “enemy of God.” While Britain’s Shia Muslim population totals approximately 200,000 people, al-Habib draws on a much larger international pool for his overseas fundraising.
As the Telegraph reports, the response has been a combination of local outrage at proposals for a part of the United Kingdom changing its legal administration, and those involved in selling the island downplaying the seriousness of the MSU bid. Fringe Christian and Buddhist groups have acquired tracts of land in the UK previously, although Dr. Paul Stott, head of security and extremism at Policy Exchange, said that, if completed, this bid would be a first for a Muslim sect.
Whoever ends up owning Torsa, the precedents are cause for concern. The British authorities are already tolerant of Sharia courts inside the UK. Their most high-profile run-in with al-Habib was in response to his film The Lady of Heaven (2021). Police watched protests from Sunni Muslims (including Islamists), before shamefully it was pulled from screens by the Cineworld cinema chain. In contrast, the MSU has conducted its own paramilitary training unhampered, mostly close to its Buckinghamshire headquarters.
Will Sheikh Yasser al-Habib get the deeds to the island? This might sound like the plot of a particularly dull episode of Lost, but the underlying issues are deadly serious. His real estate publicity stunts shine a further spotlight on Britain’s slow march to segregation, with the main opposition coming from sectarian Sunni Muslims. Perhaps if the sale goes through it will prompt the authorities to at least think about what’s been happening on their watch.
