Abu Hamza trial: cleric describes London as melting pot for jihadists across the world

The trial of terror imam Abu Hamza is proving to be morbidly entertaining.

In talking about the IRA, Hamza said, “blowing [up] bombs inside London. That’s freedom of speech.”  Funny, he sounds like Omar Sacirbey in the Washington Post.

He talked of Bosnia and he began crying when asked about the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The judge called a brief recess while he regained his composure. Kinda gets you right in the gut, doesn’t it? No mention, of course, of the war crimes committed against the Christian Serbs. *SMH* Clinton and Abu Hamza were/are of one mind on Bosnia. The US sent troops to fight for the jihad in Bosnia. That says it all.

“Abu Hamza trial: cleric describes London as melting pot for militants from around the world,” The Telegraph, May 8, 2014
Islamic hate preacher speaks of ‘love’ for Osama bin Laden as he tells New York terror trial about ‘Londonistan’ and now claims he lost hands in Pakistan accident, not Afghan jihad
Abu Hamza has told his US terror trial that he “loved” Osama bin Laden as he described London in the late-1990s as a magnet and melting pot for militants, radicals and hotheads from around the world.

The Egyptian-born cleric painted a vivid picture of “Londonistan” to the New York jury as his defence team tried to portray the hate preacher infamous for his fiery speeches as a conciliator who reined in extremists.

The then imam at the Finsbury Park mosque said that when aspiring suicide bombers came to seek his advice, he would say “fine, good intentions” before trying to persuade them to think through the consequences of their plans.

Asked about the influence of al-Qaeda supremo Osama bin Laden in the British capital at the time, he replied: “He is a very famous man. Many people love him, including myself.” London was a “very attractive place for any dissident or person who had conflict with their regimes”, he said. “It was called Londonistan all over the place.

“You only need two or three mad people from all those thousands and you see bombs.

“It was the end of many conflicts and the middle of others and a lot of refugees were coming to London. There was a lot of militancy and the law allows a lot of things in London.” Hamza depicted himself as one of several competing voices in the radical community who struck a much harder line in public than private as he seeking influence over the city’s Muslims.

In submissions while the jury was out of the federal courtroom, his lawyer Joshua Dratel previously asserted that the cleric was an “intermediary” secretly working with MI5 to defuse tensions among Islamic extremists in Britain.

Mixing up the dates, Hamza claimed that at the same time that he was making his incendiary statements, the IRA killed the Queen’s cousin. “Mr Gerry Adams came to London,” he said. “The IRA was blowing [up] bombs inside London. That’s freedom of speech.” He called himself as a “big squeaking wheel” causing trouble for the governments of the Middle East that were fighting Islamic movements.

The court heard excerpts from British television interview in which the cleric argued that even children should receive military-style training.

Hamza defended those views which he said he was making at the time of the Kosovo conflict and in the wake of the massacres of Muslims in Bosnia.

“I used to wonder why superpowers only fight weak countries,” he said.

“Because weak countries are not prepared. They are encouraging the wolf to come to eat. It’s the law of the jungle. You have to be strong.” He said he was treated as a “hero” in Islamic circles when he returned to Britain in 1993 following the loss of his hands and eye.

But he has now claimed that he suffered the disfigurement that left him using his distinctive prosthetic hook in an explosives accident in Pakistan rather than during jihad fighting communist forces in Afghanistan during the early 1990s.

Hamza, a civil engineer by training, said that he was working on a road project with the Pakistan army and Arab veterans of the jihad conflict against Soviet forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

He said that he was trying to dispose of liquid explosives that were being mixed by another engineer when the container exploded.

Asked if had fought in the civil war against Moscow’s Afghan communist allies during short trips to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, he responded: “I wish I had. Unfortunately the reputation is much bigger than the reality. The media exaggerated everything.

“I shot a couple of bullets towards the communist regime forces, but it was very quiet when it was there.” He said that instead of fighting, he deployed his civil engineering background â?“ including his experience working on projects at the Sandhurst academy â?“ to help build trenches and earthwork for foreign mujaheed volunteers fighting the Kabul regime installed by the Soviet Union.

“I was responsible for health and safety of the mujahideen,” he said. He later told the court that he had even taken design plans of his work at Sandhurst to Afghanistan to help his work there.

There was a moment of levity when Hamza told the court that he had obtained a passport with a new name to deliver aid supplies to Muslim forces in Bosnia in 1994 because the situation there was so dangerous for Arabs.

“It is very simple in Britain,” he said. “You pay £25 and you say you want to be John Travolta and you become John Travolta.” The judge, Katherine Forrest, then asked: “And did you become John Travolta?” He replied. “No, madam.”

Hamza, 56, faltered and sniffed heavily when he was asked about the massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The judge called a brief recess while he regained his composure.

He has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of terrorism. The cleric will continue his testimony on Monday.

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