The Religious Policeman

Thankfully, the kindly and tolerant British are now doing what they should have done six years ago, and that is to prosecute the one-time Imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London for

nine counts of soliciting murder, four charges of inciting racial hatred and one charge of owning a document useful to a person committing or preparing acts of terrorism.

Opening the prosecution, David Perry said Mr Hamza had used his position as a spiritual leader within the Muslim community to preach hate and encourage the murder of non-believers, and particularly Jews. The cleric allegedly told worshippers at mosques, and audiences at private meetings, that violent jihad was their duty, praising suicide bombers as martyrs and urging followers to terrorise those Mr Hamza branded enemies of Islam.

He first came to the attention of UK police back in the late '90's, but for reasons unknown, possibly to do with "not offending the local Muslim population", he was never prosecuted. However, with the exception of his fan club of the lonely, the inadequate and the confused, the local Muslim population will be delighted that he is removed from their midst, and they are hopefully no longer tarred with the same brush.

He's a real little charmer, so I deliberately picked the least flattering photo I could find. Here are some of his reported gems:

On suicide bombings

"It's not called suicide, it is called shaheed operation. People call it suicide to put people off, it is not called suicide, it is martyrdom ... If the only way to hurt the enemies of Islam is to take your own life, it is permissible ... If you don't use terrorism and torture, what are you going to use?"

On killing apostate rulers of Islamic lands

"Of course it is permissible to kill them, any person who hinders Allah, this man must be eliminated because he is a menace and this menace must be removed."

On Jews

"Because of their [Jews] treachery, blasphemy and filth, is why Hitler was sent into the world."

On Islam's enemies

"You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death."

But, just to show that he does have a sense of humor after all...

On his arrest

"I am a preacher and I have spoken on religious matters. It is unfortunate they have been taken out of context."

Apparently he lost his hand and left eye in Afghanistan. When he finally goes to gaol, I hope and pray that the other convicts will treat him to endless repetitions of the the old joke, updated in his honor.

Jihadi 1: So what happened to your hand?

Jihadi 2: I got some Russian shrapnel in it and it turned to gangrene so they had to amputate it and fit a hook instead.

Jihadi 1: And what happened to your eye?

Jihadi 2: First day with the hook, I got some dust in my eye.