Handless cleric guilty of inciting murder

Cleric Abu Hamza has been found guilty of inciting his fellow Muslim followers to kill non-Muslims and Jews following the Sept 11 attacks.

Hamza, 47, was also convicted of stirring up racial hatred and possessing a terror "manual", the Encyclopaedia Of The Afghani Jihad.

Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri, 47, was the leader of the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, and now faces faces life in prison.

The 11 counts, out of 15 he faced, comprised six of soliciting to murder, three of threatening behaviour, one of possessing tapes that could stir up racial hatred and one of possessing a terrorist handbook.

The same incitement charge and the charge of stirring racial hatred are what the police could use to bring to book some of the Muslims protesters in London last weekend.

Although they were protesting against the offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, their actions and their threatening placards clearly carried a very serious incitement to kill and to spur racial hatred.

Some of their placards were very clear of their intentions. I am sure the words were meant to instil fear on all non-Muslims and at the same time give encouragement to the Muslims that what they are doing was right.

And as for the cartoon controversy, an Iran newspaper has decided that it will run a competition for cartoons that ridicule holocaust.

As it is, the Iranian president has been calling for Israel to be wiped out of the earth and telling that the holocaust was a myth. Now with this added to the equation, I am sure the Muhammad cartoon issue is just getting bigger by the day.

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