Dangerous Dealings at Finsbury Park Mosque

Via Powerline, a very troubling report about the activities at the Finsbury Park mosque in Britain:

Police risked offending delicate religious sensitivities by raiding the Finsbury Park mosque, but their actions were justified by the mini-arsenal of weapons, terrorist paraphernalia and forged passports they found inside.

Operation Mermant, which began in the early hours of January 20 2003, involved scores of officers in body armour using battering rams to enter the building.

Full details of what they discovered during three days of searches can only be revealed today following the conclusion of Abu Hamza's trial on race hate charges.

The stash of equipment included chemical warfare protection suits, or NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) suits, as they are technically known.

They were found together with three blank-firing pistols, a stun gun and CS spray.

And how are the mosque supporters going to explain away all this stuff? Actually, they'll try to blame the British government for prosecuting the case crying racism, religious bigotry, and whatever else they can think of - including claiming that Hamza was simply exercising free speech.

"Hamza has done nothing wrong. How can he face a fair trial over exercising his freedom of speech when he is being tried by non-Muslims? This is another injustice against Muslims.

"The moderate Muslims will tell the British public that this is a good thing but they are betraying their faith. He will be praised in the Muslim world where people know he has only paid the price for his beliefs.

"This is another case of the British government failing to spell out exactly what is free speech, incitement to violence and the other offences we are discussing here.

"They just change the laws when they feel like and it is not fair. That is why I have said I will not return to the UK because they would fix the rules and try me for things I said years and years ago.

"Hamza was hunted down during a very long investigation and the changed the laws to make sure he would be found guilty. This all falls under the broad umbrella they call the war on terror which they use to mask corrupt rule changes.

"The UK has become an unjust country that does not recognise human rights and cannot define punishment. Moderate Muslims in Britain are being forced to say what the government wants but they cannot turn Muslim brothers against each other. "

It's particularly rich that these folks are going to try and claim that Hamza's free speech rights were violated - they want an unlimited right to incite violence through speech, but heaven forbid that anyone use that free speech right to post a cartoon about Mohammed. For them, it's off with your head, jihad, and torchings.

And no one can satisfactorily explain the presence of all these weapons and suspicious materials at the mosque. There's no reason, no reason at all, that these kinds of materials should be present in a religious institution of any kind. That they were found in the Finsbury Mosque, which is home to some of the most militant Islamists in the West, you've got to wonder what they were planning.

Abu Hamza, the hookhanded leader of this mosque, was sentenced to seven years in prison for inciting violence.

After the verdict it was revealed that Hamza had preached his sermons at the Finsbury Park Mosque to three of the four London bombers who killed 52 people and injured hundreds more on July 7 last year.
The cleric, who is regarded as a key figure in the global terrorism network, was in the dock at London's Old Bailey when the bombs exploded.

Hamza, who lost his arms and an eye fighting the jihad in Afghanistan, was unmoved by the guilty verdict for 11 of the 15 charges he faced in the Old Bailey.

They included soliciting to murder, stirring up racial hatred and possession of documents likely to be useful in planning a terrorist act.

The 47-year-old radical cleric, who has steel claws instead of hands, had told his followers to kill Jews and non-believers and is suspected of recruiting several men who went on to become terrorists.

Passing sentence, Justice Hughes said Hamza's views had caused real danger to the lives of innocent people around the world.

And considering the stash of stuff in the mosque, he wasn't just talking the talk. He was inciting his followers to walk the walk. Indeed, several of his followers participated in the July 7 London train bombings.