In late February 2026, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the brutal architect of Iran’s theocratic regime for over three decades, was finally killed in US-Israeli airstrikes. His death should have been a moment of relief for anyone who values liberty, human rights, and regional stability. Instead, nearly 30 British university societies openly mourned the man responsible for decades of repression, terrorism sponsorship, and the crushing of dissent inside Iran.
New research published on our University Checker has exposed the scale of this disturbing phenomenon. The tributes were not isolated or spontaneous, they were coordinated, public, and in many cases explicitly supportive of the Iranian regime. The groups responsible? Predominantly Ahlul-Bayt Islamic Societies (AbSocs) and other Shia-aligned student bodies operating across UK campuses. These societies posted condolence graphics, organised memorial events, and circulated messages referring to Khamenei as a “martyr”. Some went even further. One statement described his death as an “unimaginable loss” and urged Shia communities in the West to “remain aware and ready” because “this is not an end to resistance”. Another compared the Supreme Leader to the Pope — a grotesquely false equivalence that whitewashes a regime that executes opponents, stones women, and exports jihadism across the globe.
The pattern is clear. These are organised campus groups that enjoy official university recognition, access to student-union funding, and platforms to influence young minds. And they chose to eulogise the very man whose regime has designated the UK as an enemy, taken British hostages, and funded proxy militias responsible for the deaths of UK armed forces personnel. This is not free speech in any meaningful sense. It is the normalisation of extremist ideology on British soil — the same ideology that views the West as the “Great Satan” and sees the elimination of Israel and the subjugation of “infidels” as a religious duty. When student societies glorify the leader of a hostile state that has just been struck by Western allies, they are not expressing personal grief. They are signalling political alignment with a global sponsor of terror.
The Henry Jackson Society has written directly to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urging immediate action. We have asked for clarification on how these posts and events sit within the Prevent duty and broader national-security assessments. Universities must now investigate every society involved, review their funding and affiliations, and, where necessary, suspend or disband groups that promote or legitimise hostile foreign regimes. Britain’s universities are not neutral ground. They are battlegrounds for influence, and Iran’s regime — through its ideological proxies — has clearly established footholds. Allowing these societies to operate unchecked sends a dangerous message: that praising the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism is an acceptable student activity.
The deaths of British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lethal plots foiled on our streets, and the hostage-taking of our citizens should have taught us this lesson already. Yet here we are again, with student groups on dozens of our campuses choosing to mourn a tyrant rather than condemn the regime he led. The full research is available on our University Checker page. We will continue to monitor and expose these networks.
