AN associate of Abu Hamza, the hook-handed cleric, has defied Tony Blair’s ban on glorifying terrorism by praising the July 7 bombers and describing how he would “love” to kill British troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Abu Abdullah said he supports suicide bombers using “household chemicals” to attack the West and believes the prime minister is a legitimate target for assassination because of his foreign policy.

Abdullah, a former spokesman for Hamza, who was jailed this year for his hate-filled sermons, said the 9/11 attacks were a “deserved punch in the nose” for America. He argues that high street banks ought to be destroyed because they charge interest, which is against the tenets of Islam.

Blair, when announcing the ban in the wake of last year’s London bombings, said Britain was tolerant but that there was “a determination that this very tolerance and determination should not be abused by a small fanatical minority”.

Abdullah, however, is apparently being allowed to operate unchecked by the authorities five months after a law was passed making it a criminal offence to glorify terrorism.

Abdullah, 42, is the self-styled “emir”, or leader, of a radical group called Supporters of Shariah, which Hamza founded when he ran the Finsbury Park mosque in north London.

After Hamza was jailed for seven years in February for inciting his followers to murder non-Muslims, Abdullah has taken over a movement claiming up to 3,000 sympathisers.

Abdullah is barred from preaching in most mosques but he has been spreading his views in private meetings or “study circles” at low-key venues, such as community centres in London and the home counties.

Unlike other so-called preachers of hate, Abdullah, a former youth football coach, was born and bred in Britain.

The fact that he remains at liberty to espouse his values — including rampant anti-semitism and homophobia — will fuel the concerns of foreign governments who have for years perceived Britain to be a “soft touch” on combating Islamist extremism, with some referring to the capital as “Londonistan”.

Earlier this month David Cameron, the Tory leader, criticised Blair for failing to do enough to clamp down on fundamentalists. Despite the introduction of legislation in March, nobody has been charged with the “glorification” offence.

Rachel North, a survivor of the King’s Cross Tube attack, said: “Given what we know about the roots of radicalisation, I’m surprised that this man has not yet been investigated and charged if he has committed a criminal offence.”

Abdullah, whose real name is Attila Ahmet, is of Turkish Cypriot origin and was born and raised in London. Before converting to Islam about eight years ago, he was a football coach in the Bexley youth league and was known to his colleagues as “Alan”.

Asked what he thought of the 7/7 suicide bombers, Abdullah said last week: “I wasn’t against them. We don’t celebrate each other . . . but these are my honourable brothers in Islam.” He described the attacks, in which 52 innocent people died, as “a wake-up call”. “Sometimes the innocent have to pay the price . . . of course it is solving things,” he said.

Abdullah claimed suicide attacks are “halal”, or lawful. “The martyr that goes amongst his enemies is going to shield his people,” he said.

“He doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction, he only has household chemicals . . . The West is escalating their killing of Muslims [in the Middle East and Afghanistan]. We have a right to defend ourselves. If I had the means to go back there [Afghanistan] and kill an American or British soldier then I would love to do so.”

Abdullah, a married father-of-four who lives in a terraced former council house in south London, warned of further attacks in Britain if the government did not change its foreign policy. “Those who are fighting Islam are targets: Tony Blair, the army, the police — they are bursting in, shooting innocent Muslims,” added Abdullah, referring to the botched Forest Gate police raid.

Some of his most inflammatory comments were directed at Israel and America. Asked if he shared the views of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, he said: “Absolutely. I don’t recognise Israel. The [Jews] are a treacherous people.” He also claimed it would be justifiable for terrorists to fly a passenger jet into the White House because President George W Bush is “a scalp that needs to be taken”.

Abdullah recently appeared on CNN, the news channel, to claim the deaths of some 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks were “like a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of Muslims that have been killed” around the world.

During the same interview he praised Osama Bin Laden — “I love him more than myself” — but last week he suggested that the 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

Geoffrey Bindman, a human rights lawyer, said: “If Abdullah is praising the 7/7 bombers, it could be argued that he’s telling people to go out and do the same thing.” He said the preacher’s anti-semitic remarks could also leave him open to charges of inciting racial or religious hatred.

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