UK: Jurors hear al-Masri's calls to murder Jews

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A Muslim cleric accused in Britain of incitement to murder praised Adolf Hitler and called for Jews to be destroyed in a videotaped sermon shown at his trial Friday. Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri faces life in prison if convicted of inciting murder and stirring racial hatred in speeches recorded on nine video and audio tapes made for supporters. Al-Masri, 47, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The grainy, black-and-white footage was recorded in October 2000 at the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, where the cleric was formerly head preacher, prosecutor David Perry said. "The Jews will be destroyed, the state (of Israel) will be destroyed and some of the Jews will be running around hiding behind the trees," said al-Masri, speaking in Arabic, according to a translation of the recording read in court. He said Muslims should ensure that Israel and the Palestinian territories becomes "the biggest Jewish graveyard in the world." The orator said Western politicians of the time, including then-US President Bill Clinton and then-British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, were the "slaves of the Jews." "The Jews own them. They own everything they have and they own their fantasies as well," al-Masri said. British authorities have charged al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, with multiple counts of inciting the killing of Jews and other non-Muslims, using threatening or abusive language designed to stir racial hatred and possessing the terrorism-related document.