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Iran Is Using Foreign Islamic Centers to Spread Terror and Hatred; the World Must Close Them
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with a group of students in Tehran, Iran, Nov. 2, 2022. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Last month, Germany announced that it would deport Mohammed Mofatteh, the former director of Hamburg’s Shi’a Islamic Center, which local authorities had ordered shut down five weeks earlier for propagating extremism, and for its financial links to Hezbollah.
Mofatteh, according to German authorities, was getting direct orders from the Iranian Supreme Leader’s office about radical public messaging on the current war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Since it banned Hezbollah as a terrorist organization four years ago, Germany has closed six Iranian-linked Islamic Centers and deported some of their officials. In November 2022, Germany expelled the deputy director of the Hamburg Shi’a Islamic Center. In June 2024, the German government ordered the deportation of the director of a Berlin-based center.
Other countries should follow Germany’s approach.
After nearly four decades of virtually unhindered activity, Iranian-backed cultural centers and mosques have proliferated outside the Middle East. They have indoctrinated, radicalized, converted, and mobilized thousands of locals, who, unlike Mofatteh and his colleagues, cannot be deported.
Cases in point: Pro-Iranian centers exist in Italy, Spain, and South Africa. Their directors are, respectively, Italian-born, Spanish-born, and South African-born graduates of Al Mustafa. They peddle pro-Iran and pro-Hezbollah narratives through their centers’ activities.
The main bastions of Iran’s ideological influence beyond its borders are mosques and cultural centers, directly controlled by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, or linked to Al Mustafa International University, an ostensibly academic institution also under Khamenei’s direct control.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Al Mustafa in 2020 for its role in Iran’s propaganda efforts, including support for the training and indoctrination of Shiite militias.
With a budget of more than $100 million a year, directly provided by the Office of the Supreme Leader, Al Mustafa has been able to train tens of thousands of emissaries, who are now deployed overseas to spread the word of Iran’s sponsored Axis of Resistance and recruit locals to the cause of Khomeini’s revolution. Establishing mosques and cultural centers is central to this elaborate, global effort to spread Iran’s revolutionary brand. These institutions pose as places of worship and cultural inquiry. In fact, they are propaganda tools in the ayatollahs’ war against the West.
Beyond Europe, the problem is even more acute. European governments can and should follow Germany’s example, since they rely on robust counter-terrorism legislation and designations of organizations like Hezbollah — albeit, in most cases, just the so-called military wing.
Countries in Latin America and Africa, on the other hand, do not have as strong a legal framework to take similar actions. But Iran’s propaganda networks are very active there.
According to the 2015 annual posture statement of the then-US Southern Command’s leader, General John F. Kelly, Iran had by then established more than 80 centers in the Western Hemisphere. That number has since grown. Moreover, a Middle East Forum 2018 report identified 17 Al Mustafa branches in Africa, alongside dozens of schools and other institutions affiliated with it, and thousands of students and graduates.
Al Mustafa’s propagation model relies on its graduates as force multipliers. Many return to their home countries to open and run new centers, while their alma mater supports their work from regional headquarters headed by Iranian officials. Al Mustafa, for example, has a regional headquarter, headed by its permanent representative, Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Nejad, in Venezuela and a campus in Johannesburg, run by a South African cleric trained in Iran. Clergy from the various centers routinely meet and coordinate propaganda activities, while emissaries travel to and from Iran regularly.
There are sparse but notable exceptions to the laissez-faire approach of governments that host Iranian centers.
Last April, Brazilian immigration authorities detained Sheikh Ruben Edgardo (aka Suheil) Assaad, a key Iranian propaganda emissary, as he arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, from Doha, Qatar, to attend a Western Hemisphere gathering of Iran and Hezbollah clergy. Brazil’s federal authorities believe Assaad is linked to Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. On that basis, they put Assaad on the next plane to Doha and will no longer grant him entry into the country.
Yet, while Assaad may no longer visit Brazil, there remains a robust cohort of Al Mustafa-trained Shi’a clerics with local citizenship running centers across the region.
Assaad trained many of them, alongside his boss, sheikh Mohsen Rabbani, who is wanted by Argentina’s authorities and Interpol due to his role in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that was destroyed by a suicide car bomb in 1994, leaving 85 people dead and more than 200 wounded.
The problem is even more acute now.
Since October 7, 2023 — when Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis, triggering a new conflict in the region on behalf of its proxy, Iran — Tehran and its proxies have been leveraging their networks overseas, including their cultural and religious centers, to carry out terror attacks, while whipping up a frenzy of anti-Israel hatred in the public sphere.
Last November, Brazilian authorities foiled a Hezbollah plot to target Jewish institutions in Brasilia, the country’s capital. The point man in the plot, a Hezbollah member with both Syrian and Brazilian citizenships who sought to recruit Brazilian nationals with a criminal background, was instrumental in the recent establishment of an Iranian cultural center in Brasilia and was closely connected to both a prominent Shi’a Brazilian convert and key Iran propagandist, and to a Shi’a cleric who works in a São Paulo Shi’a mosque affiliated with Hezbollah.
In August, a Tajikistan national and graduate of Al Mustafa was arrested in Central Asia, where he was allegedly plotting terror attacks. Other plots have also just emerged in France and Germany, where local Iranian proxies followed a similar modus operandi and sought to recruit criminals to carry out terror attacks.
At this critical juncture, governments must do more: Minimizing the risk of terror attacks requires not only foiling active plots but also nipping in the bud efforts to radicalize and incite captive audiences.
Closing these centers, as Germany did; denying entry to Iranian clerical emissaries, as Brazil did; and monitoring the content of sermons and the dissemination of literature and proselytizing material by Iran-affiliated centers, are all urgently required steps that must be undertaken elsewhere by governments to protect their citizens from Iranian-backed terror.
Western governments have routinely undertaken similar actions in the past, when the threat from Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State was most acute. There is no reason they should not do the same with Iran, its proxies, and the elaborate web of cultural and religious institutions they use to spread Iran’s radical extremism.
Wouldn’t it be better to preempt the next attack, rather than have a government’s leaders commit themselves to renewed vigilance while standing in the smoldering ruins of an Iranian-backed strike?
Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington DC-based non-partisan research institution focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow him on X @eottolenghi
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Israel’s Defense Exports Hit Record $15 Billion in 2024 Despite European Pressure, Calls for Arms Embargo
Israeli troops on the ground in Gaza. Photo: IDF via Reuters
Israel reached a new all-time high in defense exports in 2024, nearing $15 billion — the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking sales — despite mounting international criticism over the war in Gaza and growing pressure from European countries to suspend arms deals.
In a press release on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced that defense exports reached over $14.7 billion last year — a 13 percent increase from 2023 — with more than half of the deals valued at over $100 million.
According to the ministry, Israel’s military exports have more than doubled over the past five years, highlighting the industry’s rapid expansion and growing global demand.
“This tremendous achievement is a direct result of the successes of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and defense industries against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, the Ayatollah regime in Iran, and in additional arenas where we operate against Israel’s enemies,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“The world sees Israeli strength and seeks to be a partner in it. We will continue strengthening the IDF and the Israeli economy through security innovation to ensure clear superiority against any threat – anywhere and anytime,” Katz continued.
In 2024, over half of the Jewish state’s defense contracts were with European countries — up from 35 percent the previous year — as many in the region have increased their defense spending following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Despite increasing pressure and widespread anti-Israel sentiment among European governments amid the current conflict in Gaza, this latest data seems to contradict recent calls by European leaders to impose an arms embargo on the Jewish state over its defensive campaign in Gaza against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
On Wednesday, Germany reversed its earlier threat to halt arms deliveries to Israel, reaffirming its commitment to continue cooperation and maintain defense contracts with Jerusalem.
“Germany will continue to support the State of Israel, including with arms deliveries,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in parliament.
Last week, Berlin warned it would take unspecified measures against Israel if it continued its military campaign in Gaza, citing concerns that exported weapons were being used in violation of humanitarian law.
“Our full support for the right to exist and the security of the State of Israel must not be instrumentalized for the conflict and the warfare currently being waged in the Gaza Strip,” Wadephul said in a statement.
Germany would be “examining whether what is happening in the Gaza Strip is compatible with international humanitarian law,” he continued. “Further arms deliveries will be authorized based on the outcome of that review.”
Spain and Ireland are among the countries in Europe that have threatened or taken steps to limit arms deals with Israel, while others such as France have threatened unspecified harsh measures against the Jewish state.
According to the Israeli defense ministry’s report, since the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, the operational successes and proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have fueled strong international demand for Israel’s defense technology.
Last year, the export of missiles, rockets, and air defense systems reached a new high, making up 48 percent of the total deal volume — up from 36 percent in 2023.
Similarly, satellite and space systems exports surged, accounting for 8 percent of total deals in 2024 — quadrupling their share from 2 percent in 2023.
While Europe dominated Israel’s defense export market in 2024, significant portions also went to other regions. Asia and the Pacific made up 23 percent of total sales — slightly lower than in previous years, when the region approached 30 percent.
Exports to Abraham Accords countries fell to 12 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022, while North America remained stable at around 9 percent.
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Israel Recovers Bodies of 2 Slain Hostages From Gaza
An undated photo of Judith Weinstein-Haggai and Gadi Haggai. Photo: Screenshot
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of two deceased hostages during a special operation in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday.
Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein-Haggai, a married couple with US citizenship, were murdered during their morning walk near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel and perpetrated the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Their bodies were taken to Gaza as hostages.
“We will not rest or be silent until we return all of our abductees home — the living and the dead alike,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Together with all citizens of Israel, my wife and I convey our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts grieve over this terrible loss. May their memories be blessed.”
The IDF discovered the corpses of Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein-Haggai in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, having announced their deaths in December 2023, and described the operation to retrieve the bodies as designed to prevent the killings of any hostages who remain alive. The IDF said that intelligence from the military and Shin Bet “led to accurate planning of a covert operation, which was carried out while preserving the lives of the other hostages and led to the recovery of the bodies of the two.”
The couple’s daughter, Iris Weinstein Haggai, wrote Thursday on Instagram that “my beautiful parents have been freed. We have certainty. 
Thank you to the IDF, the FBI, the Israeli and the American governments and to everyone who supported and is supporting us and all hostage families always – We couldn’t have breathed without you. 2 WOMEN are still held by monsters in Gaza, 56 hostages are held hostage In Gaza, our hearts will not be whole until all 56 hostages are back home 
They must all come home.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement which called the recovery of the couple “painful and heartbreaking” but added that “it also brings healing to our uncertainty.” The group stated that “their return reminds us all that it is the state’s duty to bring everyone home, so that we, the families, together with all the people of Israel, can begin the process of healing and recovery … The mission can be completed as early as tomorrow morning. This is what the majority of the Israeli people want.”
Kibbutz Nir Oz described Judith as an English teacher with expertise instructing special needs students and those struggling with anxiety, while it called her husband “a sharp and gifted brass musician” as well as “a chef, and a devotee of healthy vegan food and sports.”
Of the 251 hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 atrocities, 55 remain in captivity, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive. Terrorist groups in Gaza are also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014.
“The State of Israel is morally and nationally committed to returning our brothers and sisters, living and not living, and we will continue acting with determination until the mission is complete,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
Gadi, 72, and Judith, 70, leave behind four children and seven grandchildren.
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Tribeca Film Festival Begins in NY, Featuring Israeli and Jewish-Themed Documentaries, Feature Films
A promotional photo for “Dead Language.” Photo: Tribeca Film Festival
The 2025 Tribeca Film Festival begins this week in New York City’s lower Manhattan and features a lineup of Jewish and Israel-related films, including the world premiere of several films and the North American premiere of a documentary about a former Hamas hostage.
“Holding Liat” follows the parents of Israeli-American dual citizen Liat Beinin Atzili, who was kidnapped by Hamas-led terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, especially her father, as he advocates in the US for her release and safe return home. Atzili was released in the first Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in late 2023. Her husband, Aviv Atzili, was killed on Oct. 7 and his body is still being held in Gaza. The film, which won the top documentary prize at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, was directed by Brandon Kramer and co-produced by Darren Aronofsky. “Holding Liat” will have its North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, with additional screenings on June 10-12.
The only Israeli feature film being screened at Tribeca is “Dead Language” by Michal Brezis and Oded Binnun, which is an expanded version of their Oscar-nominated short film “Aya.” The film is about a woman who is waiting at the airport for her husband but impulsively decides to pick up a stranger instead and pretends to be his chauffeur. It will be screened as part of Tribeca’s Viewpoints section, which last year awarded Tom Nesher’s “Come Closer,” an Israeli film that later won the Ophir Award for best feature film. “Dead Language” is making its world premiere at Tribeca on June 9, with additional screenings on June 10 and June 12.
Also making its world premiere at Tribeca is the documentary “Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything,” about the life and career of the Jewish television personality, iconic interviewer, and news host who died in 2022 at the age 92. The former co-host of “The Today Show” was the first woman to host an American network evening news program and went on to co-create “The View.” The documentary, directed by Jackie Jesko, features commentary about Walters from her colleagues, friends, and some of the subjects she interviewed. “Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything” will make its world premiere at Tribeca on June 12, with further screenings on June 13 and June 15.
Comedian, actor, and podcast host Marc Maron will participate in a discussion on stage following Tribeca’s New York premiere of “Are We Good?” a documentary about his everyday life, career, and the sudden loss of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton. The film is directed by Steven Feinartz and premieres June 14, with an additional screening on June 15.
The late, legendary Jewish performance artist Andy Kaufman is the subject of another documentary being screened at Tribeca, titled “Andy Kaufman Is Me.” Directed by Clay Tweel, the film features marionette puppetry, Kaufman’s never-before-heard audio diaries, and his semi-autobiographical, unfinished novel. The film festival described the documentary as a “wildly entertaining” film and “a trippy, funny, and deeply personal ride through the mind of a man who never played by the rules — and never wanted to.” The film also features interviews with his siblings, Michael and Carol Kaufman, as well as David Letterman, Carol Kane, Tim Heidecker, and others. Kaufman died of lung cancer in 1984 at the age of 35. “Andy Kaufman Is Me” will have its world premiere at Tribeca on June 6 and there will be additional screenings on June 7 and June 12.
Making its New York premiere at Tribeca is “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.” Filmmaker, actress, and writer Shoshannah Stern’s debut documentary spotlights the life of influential Jewish deaf actor Marlee Matlin, who became an Oscar winner in 1987 at the age of 19 for her performance in “Children of a Lesser God.” Her other film credits include “CODA,” which won an Oscar in 2021 for best picture and garnered Matlin a Screen Actors Guild award. “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” will premiere as part of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9 with additional screenings on June 11 and 12.
The Tribeca Film Festival runs from June 4-15. It was created by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro, and Craig Hatkoff to help revive lower Manhattan following the 9/11 terrorist attack.
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