TWO very different Abu Hamzas appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday as the trial of the former imam of Finsbury Park mosque was shown video recordings of the radical cleric preaching.

Abu Hamza al-Masri sat in silence in the dock watching a much more animated and younger version of himself. The on-screen Abu Hamza was passionate, gesticulating with the stumps of his amputated arms as he emphasised the plight of Muslims around the world, the duty to fight the unbeliever and the evils of democracy.

This Abu Hamza emphasised the need for young Muslim men to train for jihad and to identify targets including the law courts, banks and brothels — all of them symbols of corrupt “kuffar countries” like Britain.

Living in such a country was, the angry figure in the flickering video said, little better than visiting a lavatory. Clearly visible on the screen was Abu Hamza’s hook. He does not wear the hook in court and this was the first time the jurors had seen it.

Abu Hamza, 47, denies all the charges on a 15-count indictment made up of nine offences of soliciting to murder, four of inciting racial hatred, one of possessing offensive recordings and one of possessing a terrorist manual, the Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad. The key evidence in the prosecution case against him is contained in video and audio tapes of sermons and lectures delivered by Abu Hamza between 1997 and 2000. The first of these to be aired was recorded seven years ago at a public meeting in Whitechapel, East London.

Abu Hamza’s lecture began slowly, condemning Muslims for enjoying the comforts of life in Britain — cookers, fridges, television and takeaway chicken — while their brothers and sisters suffered around the world. But as he warmed to his theme — the establishment of the Khilafah, or Islamic state — his voice reverberated in the wood-panelled courtroom.

Abu Hamza spoke in rapid-fire broken English. It was stream of consciousness, delivered over a period of more than two hours. He rambled and ranted, dictated and demanded, issued orders and captivated his listeners. Occasionally, there were flashes of humour; he mocked the former UN Secretary-General with a joke from The Fast Show, calling him “Boutros, Boutros, Boutros Ghali ”. The sound quality was poor but the judge, jurors and lawyers had a typed transcript. The prosecution alleges that the meaning of Abu Hamza’s words is unambiguous and amounts to encouraging his followers to commit murder.

In one long passage, responding to a request from an audience member for a “clear instruction” on how to wage jihad, Abu Hamza was specific about the need for violence. He said: “The first thing to do, number one, to be trained of what you can do. There’s no real need to go and train for tanks and aeroplanes, where are you going to find these, you can’t buy these in a market, you can’t make them yourselves.

To be trained of what is available to you, this is number one. Number two, to monitor the targets which are the enemies of Islam . . . every court is a target and every brothel is a target. This is from the Shawkat al-Nekaya, the needle of bleeding the enemy. You have to bleed the enemy, whether you work alone, you work with a group or you work with your own family.”

The war against the unbeliever must be fought, Abu Hamza stated, “until you see the Khilafa sitting in the White House ruling from there like the Prophet Muhammad said, that Allah showed him the Earth, that Allah told him that the whole Earth will be for Muslims, booty for Islam.”

The trial continues.

WHAT HE SAID

ON MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN
“It looks unfortunately that we have been forced to be inside a toilet . . . and some of us think they can be leaders in that toilet unfortunately. We are all under the feet and the heavy boots of the kuffar”

ON FIGHTING
“The first phase is called the Shawkat al-Nekaya, it is called the needle of bleeding the enemy. Like you imagine you have one small knife and you have a big animal in front of you . . . You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death . . . This is the first stage of jihad, destruction of the enemies of Allah”

ON LEGITIMATE TARGETS
“Every court is a target and every brothel is a target and everybody who’s endorsing that is a target”

ON CHRISTIANITY
“The Church itself have lost every capacity it has. In the hearts and minds of people preachers have become homosexual, they have become child hazard. Churches have become places of dancing, iniquity, business, black magic, you name it. Child prostitution and everyday there is evidence of that”

ON MULTICULTURALISM
“The Hindus don’t worship God, they worship the cow, and as far as Christians (are concerned) they don’t worship God they worship Jesus, and Jews they worship their desires and Muslims, they worship Allah. So your God is different from their God”

ON WEAPONS
“We ask Muslims to . . . bleed the enemies of Allah anywhere by any means. You can’t do it by nuclear weapon, you have to do it by kitchen knife, no other solution. You can’t do it by chemical weapons, you have to do it by mice poison”

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