Book description
Two veteran journalists tell the inside story of convicted hate-monger
Abu Hamza, his infamous Finsbury Park Mosque and how it turned out a
generation of militants willing to die - and kill - for their cause…
In the heightened atmosphere following the terrorist attacks on 9/11,
Mostafa Kemal Mostafa, aka. Abu Hamza al-Masri, was a gift to tabloid
newspapers. His prosthetic hook hand, glass eye and rabid pronouncements
as imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque made him the very image of a
bogeyman, easily caricatured and ultimately dismissed by intelligence
analysts who judged him offensive, but essentially foolish. They were wrong.
In this chilling investigation, senior news journalists Daniel McGrory
and Sean O'Neill reveal that the imam recently convicted for inciting
murder and racial hatred not only indoctrinated vulnerable young Muslims
into a firebrand version of Islam, but supported Taliban leaders, had
direct contact with al-Qaeda and recommended recruits for terrorist
training camps in Afghanistan. Under Abu Hamza's leadership, the north
London mosque became a place where young zealots were taught
hand-to-hand combat, the use of knives, how to dismantle and reassemble
firearms and surveillance techniques. Amongst the extremists who looked
to Abu Hamza for leadership were Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called
twentieth hijacker from the attacks of 9/11, and Mohammed Sidique Khan,
the ringleader of the 7 July London bombings.
Using the account of an inside informant, the jail diary of a former
recruit, security records and recollections of followers and associates
of the imam, the authors dig behind the notoriety Abu Hamza has been
content to foster for the real story of a larger-than-life man who has
lied repeatedly about his background, his first (bigamous) marriage to
an Englishwoman and even the cause of his famous injuries. Even more
alarmingly, they reveal how British security forces for years allowed
the Egyptian's training ground to thrive, turning a blind eye to the
dangers of home-grown extremism and permitting some of the most
fanatical elements from around the world to establish London as their
base… Daniel McGrory and Sean O'Neill are senior news journalists with
The Times.
McGrory has reported on the rise of Islamist terrorism for a decade. He
is an award-winning journalist and was one of the first British
reporters to identify the threat posed by radical clerics granted
political asylum in Britain.
O'Neill joined The Times from the Daily Telegraph, where he focussed on
al-Qaeda after years reporting on the IRA. He was the first reporter to
document how al-Qaeda used London as a base and has covered all the
major terrorist trials in the UK since 2001.
