As some Americans may know, Abu Hamza is on trial in New York.

Abu Hamza -- or, to give his real name, Mustafa Kamel Mustafa -- was once an imam at Finsbury Park mosque, London. He used that mosque (as many Muslims did) as a “base of operations for the global export of violence and terror.”

Last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said that Abu Hamza's London mosque at that time (the mid-1990s) was “brimming with hundreds of men whom Abu Hamza sought to deploy for his own violent purposes”. Far more relevantly -- and this is something Islamophiles and Leftists simply don't get -- Abu Hamza was theologically correct when, to use Edward Kim's words, he demanded that “all able-bodied Muslims... wage war against non-Muslims”. Moreover, Hamza correctly believed -- and still believes -- that Muslims have “a duty to kill”. In fact he freely admitted (without a taint of taqiyya) that Islamic jihad is indeed “violent”, “global” and “mandatory” (i.e., for all fit, adult Muslim males). Now those aren't the words of Robert Spencer or Pamela Geller: they're the words of the Assistant U.S. Attorney.

No doubt Edward Kim (or his equivalents) would say that Abu Hamza is a “misinterpreter” or “distorter” of Islam. But that is a very strange thing to say because Abu Hamza has probably studied the Koran and Islamic literature every single day of his adult life. Edward Kim, and many others just like him... how can I put this.... haven't! Yet the latter are accusing Abu Hamza and millions of other Muslims just like him of “distorting Islam”. The mind boggles.

Anyway. At roughly the same time that all this Abu Hamza business was happening in London, no other than Osama bin Laden himself was there amidst it all; if not for such long periods of time as Hamza.

Osama bin Laden in London

Osama bin Laden stayed in London, for various lengths, between the early 1980s and 1996. More precisely, he also delivered several sermons (or whatever you call them) at the Regents Park Islamic Center.

In 1994, Bin Laden established his ‘office’ in London for the pretentiously-named Advice and Reformation Committee (it sounds almost benign) or the ARC for short. The office was in the heart of London – Wembley. (Whether or not Bin Laden attended any FA Cup finals I can’t say; though he’d have heard the fans from his office.)

He visited London in 1994, stayed for a few months, and then kept on visiting between 1994 and 1996. It has even been said that he often did so in his own private jet.

His office in London included many fax machines and computers. From there he issued his well-known fatwas and tens of pamphlets. For example, in August 1996/98, he issued his declaration of jihad against the Americans “occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places” (not a single mention of Palestine). This is a taster from that fatwa:

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.”

It was in his London office that Bin Laden met all sorts of nice Muslims. He met the leaders of Algeria’s Armed Islamic Group (GIA); which, at the time, was engaged in a brutal civil war in which hundreds of thousands of Algerians died. He met the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. And he also met Egypt’s Islamic Jihad.

Let’s talk about other Islamic terrorists who helped Bin Laden run his Wembley office.

Take Khaled al-Fawwaz, the head of the London office. He had begun his Islamist career as an Abu Hamza underling at the renowned Finsbury Park Mosque. Al-Fawwaz, in 1990, even had the decency to admit that “London is our association’s headquarters’ and that the "British authorities are very tolerant.” These British governments, and other authorities, were “very tolerant” of these known Islamic terrorists because of the now celebrated "covenant" (the British Covenant of Security) which they had with them. Basically that covenant stated:

We don't care if you blown women and children to pieces in other countries (even in Europe), just as long as you don't do so in the United Kingdom.

Of course these people (or at least their equivalents) did go on to blow people up in the UK – in 2005. And since then there have been literally tens of foiled terrorist attacks (over 30) in our country.

The United States attempted to extradite al-Fawwaz -- the head of Bin Laden's London office -- from the UK in 1998. His British lawyer (no doubt a Leftist sympathizer) claimed that his human rights would be breached in a U.S. prison. The British courts agreed. He wasn't extradited.

Another Islamic terrorist involved with Bin Laden’s Advice and Reformation Committee London office was Adel Abdel Bary, then leader of Egypt’s Islamic Jihad (EIJ). Adel Bary was involved in the embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, which killed over 200 people. In 1995 he has already been sentenced to death, in absentia, for the bombing of the Khan al-Khalili tourist landmark.

Adel Bary had been granted asylum, in the UK, back in 1993.

After that, in 1996, Bary was appointed -- by al-Zawahiri (Bin Laden’s deputy) -- as the leader of the London cell of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

In 1997, Egypt’s President Mubarak attempted to extradite Adel Bary from the UK because of his involvement in the Luxor massacre of tourists in Egypt. The British Government refused the request. It demanded that the Egyptians give Bary a fair trial and not execute him. The European Human Rights Convention also stopped this possible deportation.

It's also interesting to note that during Osama bin Laden’s London Period, in the mid-1990s, Inayat Bunglawala, now spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), openly supported the Islamic terrorist. Indeed he wrote to the Financial Times to explain that Bin Laden was, in fact, “a freedom fighter”. Then again, in 1992 Bunglawala told a Muslim youth magazine, rather poetically, that the then Chairman of Carlton Communications, Michael Green, was “of the Tribe of Judah” (i.e., Jewish). And, later, in 1993, he told Private Eye that Sheik Omar Abdu Rahman -- who a month later blew up the World Trade Center -- was “courageous”.

The icing on this cake happened in 1995.

In that year, London supporters of Bin Laden actually had the audacity to send letters to the Home Office asking if Bin Laden could claim political asylum in the UK. (I'm not sure if Shami Chakrabarti's Liberty took up his case.) Whether this was an act of deep piss-taking or not I simply do not know.

Note: In 2003, the Finsbury Park mosque was “reclaimed” by “representatives” of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAC); which is part of the Muslim Brotherhood (according to itself, that is). There are many links between the MAB and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood; as well as with Hamas. Indeed one prominent leader of the MAB, Azzam Al-Tamimi, has called himself a “sympathizer and supporter” of Hamas and he has commented on the religious inspiration and righteousness of suicide bombing.