Remote Scottish island owner WON’T sell to controversial cleric who ‘raised £3m’ to turn it into ‘Islamic homeland’
A REMOTE Scottish island owner is refusing to sell the land to a controversial Muslim cleric who plans to turn it into an ‘Islamic homeland’.
Sheikh Yasser al-Habib, 45, is looking to buy the isle of Torsa, in Argyll, for £3million.
The firebrand scholar wants to build a school, hospital and mosque on the mile-long island, where it intends to practise sharia law in preparation for the coming of their messiah.
But the plans have been met by furious backlash from locals and it is understood that the owner is unwilling to sell the land to Al-Habib, the Daily Mail reports.
In a video encouraging supporters to donate towards their £3.5million target, the cleric says he wants Muslims “from all over the world” to be given a visa in order for them to live in their new “homeland”.
Al-Habib – who already runs military-style training camps – has been accused of stirring up sectarian hatred in Britain and in the Arab world between Shias and rival Sunni Muslims.
The tiny island of Torsa is currently uninhabited apart from a three-bedroom farmhouse.
It is understood that the owner has not agreed to the sale and the island is unlikely to be sold to any party who is a bad fit with the locals.
The island is still on the market, estate agents Savills confirmed.
The councillor for the Kintyre and Island ward Alastair Redman said residents on neighbouring islands and the mainland have been left appalled by Al-Habib’s plans.
He said: “The proposal for setting up a sectarian religious outpost on a rural Scottish island is immoral.
“The fact that he wants to involve an idyllic setting in prejudiced preaching is simply unacceptable.
“There is no place for that, we should all be able to get on.”
Mr Redman added: “All that people like him do is stir up division and prejudice. It doesn’t matter who is doing it. We don’t want any of that here.”
Retied teacher Alistair Flemming, who lives on a neighbouring island, said the proposals would have been rejected by residents at the planning stage.
And Al-Habib’s plans would be ruined by the remote location.
He said: “The only way you can access it is by ferry and it is not big enough to cater for a large number of people.
“Even if he did buy the island I do not think he would be able to carry out the works he is proposing.
“There would be far too many objections.”
A local woman on the nearby island Luing added: “I’m not sure the Women’s Institute are going to stand for this. Of course we’d welcome just about anyone, but this doesn’t seem appropriate at all.”
Al-Habib has been fundraising through his controversial satellite channel Fadak TV, which he has run for several years from a £2million converted church hall in Buckinghamshire.
In one three-minute video on his TV station Fadak TV, al-Habib says: “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 support this project.”
In the same video, another man, who is filming from Torsa, says: “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.”
Despite repeated warnings from the regulator Ofcom, al-Habib has been permitted to continue broadcasting his lectures, spreading hate and inciting violence towards those from the Sunni faith at home and abroad.
Al-Habib has repeatedly come to the attention of the authorities since his arrival in the UK in 2004, and MPs have tried to shut down his TV channel without success.