Arrests after a 500-officer raid on former orphanage shine light on fanatical Islamic religious sect, whose leader claims he is ‘new pope’
Neil Johnston
The Telegraph
May 3, 2026
When those living on a street in the town of Crewe were invited for “beanies and burgers” by their unusual neighbours, they hoped it would be an olive branch.
But their concern has only grown over the odd behaviour of the 150 people living in a former orphanage likened to the Temple of Doom.
Best known for its railway interchange and a Bentley factory, Crewe is now the headquarters of a fanatical Islamic religious sect, whose leader claims to be the “new pope” and the successor to the prophet Mohammed.
The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL), who dress all in black and wear beanie hats as “religious head coverings”, is led by Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq, a 42-year-old Egyptian-American, who believes he is “the riser” and the self-proclaimed “saviour of mankind”.
But it’s the group’s military-style marches, hovering drones and robot guard dogs have alarmed his neighbours on Victoria Avenue in Crewe.
The married father of four has also said he is the successor to Jesus and his followers believe he can make the moon disappear.
Aliens control US presidents
Members of the sect also believe that George Washington was Adam Weishaupt, who is believed to be the founder of the Illuminati, and that a race of aliens known as “Shfar” control US presidents and world leaders.
The sect’s gospel suggests that George Bush Snr is a “shapeshifting extraterrestrial” who is “under control”.
Bizarre scripture also discusses a planet called Al-Aroos where rabbits are the size of bears while followers have told of Hashem’s “miracles” including bringing a woman in Germany back from the dead and healing blind people.
The sect has been described as a “cult” and on Wednesday 10 people from eight different countries were arrested after a raid involving more than 500 officers from four police forces as part of an investigation into alleged modern slavery.
Dozens of police cars and vans descended on Grade II-listed Webb House before 9am with detectives assisted by a drone squad, a helicopter and a Vulcanair P68R surveillance plane.
The suspects, arrested on suspicion of offences ranging from human trafficking and forced marriage to sexual assault and modern slavery, were released pending further enquiries on Friday.
Cheshire Police said that, in addition to bail conditions, a court had approved slavery and trafficking risk orders against Hashem and four other suspects, which ban them from entering Crewe, contacting the alleged victim or leaving the country.
A further 25 people have been charged with public order offences after obstructing police during the raid, which witnesses described as a “mini-riot”.
Followers living in the £1.5m compound insisted there was no wrongdoing and repeated Hashem’s claim to be the rightful pope.
Raised in Indiana to an Egyptian father and American mother, Hashem initially produced documentaries in which he infiltrated cults but later went on to form his own sect where he declared himself the “Qaim” or the “Mahdi”, a saviour figure from Islamic doomsday prophecy and the successor to Muhammad.
Followers urged to donate earnings
The group has followers around the world and is also known as The Black Banners of the East, the Ansar of Imam Mahdi and the Companions of the Seventh Covenant.
It moved to the UK in 2021 from Sweden, where immigration authorities investigated several companies linked to the sect and issued deportation orders to dozens of its members.
The Home Office is also investigating concerns over visas linked to the community, but Hashem has continued to proselytise online through YouTube, where he has attracted millions of views and TikTok where the group has 96,000 followers.
His “scripture” includes a 628-page book, The Goal of the Wise, which says that his followers have a “duty” to donate their entire salary, other than some deductions for basic living, and to sell their houses or land to fund his mission to create a “divine” state.
“It is the duty of every single believing man and woman in this Call to turn in all of their belongings except for that which they need for basic livelihood, in order to help the Qaim establish his State,” the book states.
Followers say they are misunderstood and mean no harm but their unusual behaviour has triggered concern locally with its activities being compared to a “training camp”.
In one recent TikTok, filmed in January and titled “The True Hajj: The Black Cloud renews its allegiance to the Mahdi”, Hashem was filmed leaving the red-brick building in Crewe and waving to followers, all in black.
To the sound of drums, men carrying black flags march in columns around a football pitch as a man shouts to various “companies” to stand to “attention” and salute while the leader inspects them on the grass, with the gardens of semi-detached houses visible in the background.
Women then carry gold and black balloons and labels reading the “Mahdi has appeared”, before hugging the leader while the men march with their fists in the air and chant loudly.
Like something out of Indiana Jones
Residents who back on to the compound said the parades were a regular occurrence and compared the marches to that of followers of the cult in the 1984 Indiana Jones blockbuster.
“You can hear them marching in the evening,” a resident said. “It’s like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, they have been doing training. It’s a cult and if you do something they don’t like they get aggressive.”
“They have two German Shepherds they walk round and have a drone they fly every night for hours. There are rumours they have been spying on people’s rooms. The leader doesn’t come out, the rumour is he doesn’t come out the compound because he is scared of snatch squads.”
Another resident added: “It started with beanies and burgers day. The week after they had security dogs.”
Others said they were scared to walk past the compound and that “robot dogs” had been used to monitor those passing its gates.
“We’ve been frightened for years, we will not walk down this road,” a woman said. “We’ve seen them all covered in black. If anybody goes to the gate all the security are there with robotic dogs.”
The grounds of the compound have British and US flags at the entrance and a white statue stands in front of the porch.
Inside, the building contains accommodation for 150 people, a studio used for social media output and a Hall of Mysteries, which the sect’s magazine, Divine Just State, said would become “an official tourist attraction in which history is recorded and documented for the purpose of educating the world”.
‘We believe he is the real, true pope’
Members of the sect are also said to have asked people whether they own their houses so they can buy them while other complaints relate to late-night floodlights and security shining torches into gardens.
Lawyers for AROPL said it would not be commenting other than to confirm that it is co-operating with the investigation and was unable to comment further at this stage.
However, since the raid, members of the community have camped outside Middlewich Custody Suite demanding the “immediate release” of those being questioned.
In an open letter addressed to Cheshire Police, supporters said they were staging a “collective protest” and expressing their “profound concern” about the arrests.
They said the raid had caused “significant distress to thousands of followers worldwide” and urged police to conduct their investigation with the “utmost speed and transparency”.
Husam, a member of the sect who said he was part of the outreach team, said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
“This is way over the top,” he said, pointing at a line of police vans. “I think if you’re accusing a people of something, you should take them to the court, you should call them into the investigation.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense and be cheaper and better that you would call the family that you’re suspecting of having a slave right to the police station. They would rather spend your tax money with all of this crazy insanity and cause a huge fuss online and defame an entire religion. It is inhumane behaviour.”
He said he was aware the group had been described as a cult but said this was unfair and that the term “has been used and abused in so many different ways that you can actually name everything a cult right now”.
“Governments can be labelled as cults,” he said. “You name it, any sort of group can be labelled as a cult.”
He has not heard from Hashem since the police operation began, but said he was “best man alive” and people were wrong to dismiss his teachings.
“We believe that he is the real, true pope,” he said. “I’ve never met a human being like him.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/02/the-temple-of-doom-cult-terrifying-residents-of-crewe/
