Religious leader 'hijacked' movement, claims brother

"I did not see any of this stuff coming. I tried to talk to him several times, tried to advise him. He would just accuse me of being jealous of him."

AbdelRahman Hashem is talking about his brother, Abdullah Hashem - a self-proclaimed Mahdi, or saviour of mankind, and leader of The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), now based in Crewe, Cheshire.

In an interview with BBC File on 4 Investigates, Hashem's brother claims he, "kind of hijacked some other people's religious movement and kind of made it his own. I know Abdullah better than most people. I don't think he believes he is the Mahdi."

The BBC put this to Abdullah Hashem's lawyer who said it was "false and highly damaging to suggest that Mr Hashem doesn't believe himself to be the Mahdi" and his brother was trying to "undermine" him.

The interview is part of an investigation into AROPL's history by File on 4 Investigates.

When 170 members moved into a former orphanage in Crewe, they initially tried to build bridges with the local community.

"They brought round gift-bags with food and a card in," one neighbour Colin told us, "they even sent an ice-cream truck round".

Four years later, protests demanding the group leave the town are regularly held outside its headquarters and have at times turned violent.

The movement, which emerged in Egypt just over a decade ago, is now facing a police investigation.

In April, Cheshire Police deployed 500 officers to raid the group's headquarters following allegations of sexual offences, forced marriage and modern slavery made by a former member. AROPL strenuously denies any wrongdoing.

The new religion is led by Abdullah Hashem, a 43 year old Egyptian-American, who presents himself as a divinely-appointed saviour of mankind.

The group moved from Cairo to Germany, then Sweden, before settling in Crewe in 2022. It says it faced opposition at each location because of its beliefs.

Critics say concerning allegations have followed the group throughout its history, while the group says such claims are driven by prejudice.

"I am Abdullah, the Successor of Jesus Christ. I am the true and legitimate Pope. One day this movement will take over the world. We believe that right now we are building an ark much in the same way that Noah built an ark in his time."

Long-haired, dressed all in black and always wearing a beanie, AROPL's leader Abdullah Hashem has created an entirely new religion.

Its core book, The Goal of the Wise, runs to more than 600 pages in which Hashem draws on and reinterprets texts from the Abrahamic faiths such as the Torah, Bible and Quran.

It also cites fringe writings rejected by the mainstream of these religions and conspiracy theories.

Hashem claims to have had contact with an Iraqi spiritual leader called Ahmed al-Hassan, saying al-Hassan revealed to him that Hashem is the long-heralded saviour of mankind, known as the Mahdi.

Al-Hassan hasn't been seen since 2007 and some question if he is even alive.

The office claiming to represent Ahmed al-Hassan in Iraq, told the BBC that they denounced Abdullah Hashem when he first claimed to have been appointed by al-Hassan as the Mahdi and launched his own movement.

Lawyers representing Hashem and AROPL dispute that the office in Iraq represents the elusive al-Hassan.

For Hashem and his followers, they insist he is a divinely appointed leader through whom they can find salvation and spread God's message.

"The intellectual move has been from something which is expressed in primarily Shiite terms, into something which tries to appeal to the wider public," says Prof Rob Gleave of Exeter University, an expert on messianic beliefs in Shia Islam.

"Most Muslims would look at what's happening at the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light and say it's really got nothing to do with Islam."

Alcohol is permissible, women don't have to wear the hijab and the LGBTQ+ community are welcomed, views that place it at odds with the Muslim tradition it mostly frames itself around.

Because of that, followers of AROPL say they have been unjustly persecuted in a number of Muslim-majority countries, with recent arrests in Algeria, Egypt and Iran.

The group recruits followers through social media, including YouTube lectures and TikTok livestreams.

The devoted followers are a tight-knit community at Webb House who are encouraged to sell their assets when they join.

AROPL moved to Germany in 2015 and was later based in Sweden, from a farmhouse in the remote village of Sävsjön.

When the BBC visited the abandoned property, neighbours described the group as "secretive" and "aggressive."

One resident said: "You got the feeling that we they didn't want anybody to see what they were doing."

The Swedish Police Authority told the BBC it investigated AROPL following complaints from local residents and from some of the group's former members.

Per Lundbäck, the police commissioner for the Bergslagen region, said: "My impression of the members I've spoken to is it did not end up as the life they had thought from the beginning."

He said authorities monitored the group for years, including conducting raids, but found no evidence of criminality.

The group's leader has since described the police action as "harassment and bullying" and said the raids were part of a "campaign of persecution" begun by "disgruntled ex-members".

Among those living with AROPL in Sweden was a woman called Lisa Wiese.

She was 30 when she vanished during a trip to India in March 2019, after travelling there with another member of the group.

She had joined Abdullah Hashem's emerging religious group in 2012, when they were still based in Egypt, shortly after her conversion to Islam.

In Egypt, Wiese met AbdelRahman Hashem, brother to the group's leader Abullah. They married, had two children and later divorced.

Lisa then travelled with the group when it left Egypt.

AbdelRahman said Wiese told him while she was in Sweden that she was considering leaving the religion.

He said that before travelling to India, she sent him an email saying, "I'm going to go on a trip for a few weeks, my phone is broken so you're probably not going to be able to get a hold of me" and that he did not hear from her again.

Days after arriving in Kerala, the fellow AROPL member returned without Wiese, while she was never heard from again. A German police investigation into Lisa's whereabouts, supported by Swedish police, went nowhere.

Through its lawyers, AROPL said it "emphatically denies" that it had anything to do with her disappearance.

Ultimately, the group left Sweden after Brexit affected the immigration status of some followers.

The Swedish Migration Court issued deportation orders against members with British citizenship who it found did not have the right to work in the country.

AROPL says the court wrongly concluded that some British members should be deported.

Police commissioner Per Lundbäck said: "We were quite satisfied with them leaving Sweden. In one way, we deported the problem to England, although we did tell the British police that they were coming and where they were settling down."

After April's raids, fourteen people were arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of modern-day slavery, forced marriage and sexual offences. They have been bailed pending further inquiries.

Some have been issued civil interim slavery and trafficking risk orders stopping them from entering Crewe.

Since the raids, several protests have taken place outside Webb House, with demonstrators accusing the group of operating like a "cult".

Watching news coverage of events from his home in Florida, AbdelRahman hopes the police raid may finally provide at least some answers about the disappearance of his ex-wife Lisa.

He wants Cheshire Police to widen their investigation to look into her case.

"It's been over seven years now. No one ever heard from her," he said. "Anybody that joins that group should be asking themselves, 'what did happen?' Lisa was part of this group."

Cheshire Police said they were aware of the case and were in contact with relevant authorities via Europol.

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