Islamic bookshops selling antisemitic texts allowed to issue 'skilled worker' visas for migrants to come to Britain

Several Islamic bookshops whose catalogues include antisemitic literature have been granted Home Office authority to sponsor skilled worker visas, a new investigation has revealed.

The shops in question stock titles that describe Jewish people as possessing a "wicked nature," while certain other texts available on their shelves have been identified as radicalisation risks within British prisons.

None of the publications sold by these businesses are illegal under UK law, and some are available through mainstream retail platforms.

There is no suggestion that the organisations involved in the Telegraph investigation have engaged in any wrongdoing.

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Among the titles on offer is Milestones by Sayyid Qutb, an influential former Muslim Brotherhood figure who was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966.

The book advocates the toppling of all secular governments through "physical power and jihad" and their replacement with sharia-based Islamic regimes.

Qutb's multi-volume In the Shade of the Qur'an, which contends that Jewish people "try to destroy all values and all that is sacred to mankind," is also stocked by several of the shops.

Works by Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna feature alongside those of Bilal Philips, a cleric barred from the UK by the Home Office, whose writings include guidance on wife-beating.

Dr Philips's The Fundamentals of Tawheed argues that "un-Islamic government must be sincerely hated and despised."

According to Home Office figures, a Birmingham-based bookshop has issued as many as 16 skilled worker sponsorship certificates since 2021, with Milestones available for purchase on its website.

An east London shop selling In the Shade of the Qur'an has sponsored up to 18 visas over the same period, while a Leicester-area bookshop offering the same text, along with the essay collection Islam: The Way of Revival featuring work by Qutb and al-Banna, is linked to a parent organisation that may have sponsored up to 10 workers.

Two further east London businesses, including one in Tower Hamlets, have each issued up to 10 sponsorship certificates.

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Both sell The Fundamentals of Tawheed, which Prison Service inspectors flagged as extremist material in 2016 and ordered its removal from prison chaplaincies.

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson called for an urgent inquiry, telling The Telegraph: "It's a perfect illustration of 14 years of Tory failure: rather than doctors and engineers, we brought in staff for Islamic shops selling books on jihad. It is beyond belief that the Home Office did not realise this."

He demanded the immediate removal of sponsorship powers and revocation of all visas issued through these businesses.

The bookshops represent a tiny fraction of the more than 120,000 organisations currently licensed to issue visa sponsorship certificates, a register that spans from major corporations like Barclays to corner shops, halal butchers and nearly 80 vape companies.

Net migration approached one million by the close of 2023, triggering government efforts to tighten skilled worker visa requirements and raise salary thresholds.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Thanks to our decisive action to raise the skilled salary threshold, these kinds of businesses are incredibly unlikely to get a licence approved.

"Companies must apply for the appropriate sponsor licence. The holding of a licence does not guarantee that it is in use nor that any sponsored visa application will be approved by the Home Office following a rigorous assessment process.

"Holding a sponsorship licence is no guarantee of a visa and all licences are determined on a case-by-case basis.

"To further protect the system from abuse, more than 100 occupations have been cut from overseas recruitment access. Meanwhile, skilled sponsor revocations went up by 950 per cent in 2025 compared to 2023."

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