SUICIDE bombing is a legitimate tool of war, regarded by religious scholars as “the highest form of martyrdom”, Abu Hamza al-Masri told an Old Bailey jury yesterday.

The radical Muslim cleric, who is facing charges of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, said that he condoned suicide attacks if they were the only way that Muslims had of defending themselves.

Abu Hamza sought to explain remarks that he had made in a video of a lecture delivered in Luton in 1997. Asked, during his second day of evidence, about the legitimacy of “martyrdom operations”, he said: “If it is the only way of preventing the enemies of Islam or resisting oppression, then that would be your only tactic of war.

“It is as if a woman was being raped — are you telling her, don’t use the scissors? Use what is available to you.”

Pressed by Edward Fitzgerald, QC, to give an example of when suicide attacks would be appropriate, Abu Hamza said that Palestinian villagers faced with Israeli tanks and bulldozers could legitimately use such tactics.

He said: “You cannot condemn the suicide bombing if you allow the Apache [helicopter] bombing at the same time.” Respected authorities had ruled that suicide bombs were a lawful and elevated form of martyrdom, he said.

The former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, denied that when he spoke about suicide bombings he was encouraging his audience to take part in such actions. He said that none of his sermons was intended to exhort his followers to commit acts of violence in Britain.

Abu Hamza said that he had not read an alleged terrorist manual that was found in a raid on his West London home in May 2004 and that he had no idea that it referred to Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower as potential targets. The Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad had been a gift from the Mujahidin when he was working as a civil engineer in Afghanistan. Abu Hamza has told the court that he lost his arms and an eye in an incident in Afghanistan in 1993.

“I am not a military man,” he said, explaining why he had not read the 11-volume publication. “Look at it, it is in very good condition. It is not used, it has not been opened.

“It was seized from me in 1999, returned nine months later and seized again in 2004. The condition of it suggests that it has only been opened by the security services.

“The first I heard that Big Ben was mentioned in it was in this court. I have many books, I kept it as a piece of history.”

He said that the book was produced by veterans of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union, which had been encouraged by America and the West, reviving for Muslims the notion of physical jihad.

Mr Justice Hughes attempted to hold Abu Hamza back from delivering long speeches. “Do resist the temptation to launch into a 15-minute diatribe or lecture because you will lose us,” he said.

Abu Hamza, 47, denies soliciting murder, inciting racial hatred, possessing offensive recordings and having a document of use to a terrorist.

The case continues.

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