The New Dark Age

Amid a deepening crackdown on Palestine solidarity in the country, a senior member of the British parliament is leading a campaign to have a popular activist and Muslim scholar arrested. Alicia Kearns, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs has called on the U.K. Home Office to detain Sayed Hussain Makke.

Her letter accuses him of providing “sustained public support” for Hezbollah (a proscribed organization in the United Kingdom), organizing “combat training camps” for British Muslims where “radicalization is alleged to have occurred,” and relocating to southern Lebanon, the heartland of Hezbollah itself.

A spokesperson for Counter Terrorism Policing London said that “All reports are reviewed and, if it is assessed that further police action is required, then it will get passed to the relevant police force or counter-terrorism unit to carry this out.”

Makke strongly contests Kearns’ framing, claiming that he is the victim of a coordinated attack by the pro-Israel lobby. “I have always acted in accordance with UK terrorism law, and any allegation to the contrary is defamatory, ludicrous and racist. British counter-terrorism police should be commended for ignoring the malign Zionist influence-peddlers calling for my arrest,” he said in a statement, adding: “It is an open secret that Alicia Kearns is a British intelligence asset, but she appears to be an asset of the Zionist regime as well. She should be investigated for working against British interests on behalf of a hostile foreign power.”

That there is an Israel or antisemitism angle to this story appears to have been confirmed by Kearns herself, who told The Daily Telegraph that:

“Months ago, I handed the Government evidence about Hussain Makke. This week he walked into Britain unchallenged. He is here now. If that’s what ‘stopping at nothing’ looks like, the Government’s promises to Britain’s Jewish community aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.”

The campaign against Makke has also been led by The Jewish Chronicle, a stridently pro-Israel newspaper that refuses to disclose its ownership, even amid widespread speculation of foreign powers or agents controlling the outlet.

Last year, following a pressure campaign from pro-Israel forces Australia revoked Makke’s visa, citing his support for Hezbollah and other forces resisting Israel’s ambitions in the region. He had been scheduled to carry out a speaking tour across the country. Shadow Australian Home Affairs Minister James Paterson welcomed the decision, stating that, “No one who praises a deceased terrorist [Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah], let alone attends the funeral organized by a listed terrorist organization, should be welcome in Australia.”

Listing Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, however, is fraught with difficulties and inconsistencies. To begin with, the group holds 15 seats in the Lebanese parliament and has held positions inside the cabinet. Founded in 1982 in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it has, since 2023, proved to be the only force effectively resisting the ongoing Israeli occupation. Thus, it has earned significant support, particularly among the population of South Lebanon. Therefore, by proscribing Hezbollah, the U.K. government is effectively criminalizing resistance to Israeli colonialism, occupation, and land left – a violation of international law.

Paterson also would likely not be impressed with Makke’s assessment of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S./Israeli attack in February. In an Instagram post, Makke described him as a “true miracle of a man”, a man “who embodied Islam,” and one with “deep knowledge, political insight and wisdom.”

In July the government of the United Kingdom officially outlawed support for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claiming that the organization was responsible for at least seven recent terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in Britain. It is now a criminal offense to express a positive opinion about even assisting the IRGC, one punishable with fourteen years imprisonment. Hezbollah is also proscribed under U.K. counter-terrorism laws, with the same penalty applying to support for the Lebanese organization.

In January, the European Union also added the IRGC to its terror list, following the wave of anti-government demonstrations in Iran.

The increasing pressure on Makke is part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech and criticism of the State of Israel by British authorities. In October 2024, around 10 police officers carried out a dawn raid at the house of Electronic Intifada journalist, Asa Winstanley. Winstanley had seven devices, including work computers and phones, seized. Months later, a court ruled that the raid and seizures were unlawful.

Last year, academic and journalist David Miller was stopped at Heathrow Airport by counter-terrorism police upon his return from Lebanon, where he had been reporting on the assassination and funeral of Nasrallah.

A similar occurrence befell journalist Kit Klarenberg, who was met at the airport by six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officials, who seized his electronic devices, and memory cards and took his fingerprints and DNA. In an interview with MintPress News, Klarenberg said of his experience:

“Britain has, for a very long time, had the most sweeping counter-terror laws in the Western world and arguably in the world. They have overturned centuries-old and hard-fought-for rights, protections, and freedoms that average citizens enjoy, and have granted police sweeping and disturbingly vague powers.” 

These figures, however, are but a drop in the ocean compared to the U.K.’s crackdown on pro-Palestine groups. Palestine Action in particular has faced rigorous suppression, with London designating the organization a terrorist group. More than 3,500 individuals have been arrested and over 1,500 charged under laws which equate the group to organizations such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, primarily for holding signs in public reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”

A significant proportion of those arrested are retirees, and the sight of huge numbers of elderly and disabled individuals being led away in handcuffs, supposedly as dangerous terrorists, has shocked human rights organizations. Amnesty International, for example, described it as a dangerous blow to basic rights. “It is completely disproportionate to punish protesters for criminal damage as if they were terrorists, a sentence that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The use of terrorism laws against direct action protesters must end,” they wrote.

Makke has attempted to take the scrutiny and suspicion in his stride. “I am not moved in the slightest. Rather, I am more determined than ever before to BE A GOOD PERSON, which is why [they] want me to be arrested,” he said in a post on Instagram, “I will enjoy my freedom with dignity, and continue to be successful in everything I do by the will of God, as long as God is pleased. My voice will be louder and I will work harder.”