ABU HAMZA'S SON

Now they no longer have the mosque, I don't see the evil Finsbury Park terrorist posee so much, but I still want as many people as possible who appear in the 40 hours or so of footage I have of their protest to contribute to my documentary.

This will possibly be easier now. For most of the protest the Muslims often instructed each other not to talk to me. Abdullah and Hamza once issued an edict that no one was supposed to speak to "the media" but Hamza. I could understand why. The situation was literally hysterical and they thought that if anyone said anything out of line, Hamza would get it in the neck.

I didn't consider myself to be "the media" and as far as I was concerned, every individual was taking the risk of being there, worshiping under the media spotlight so I took the view that every individual was welcome to say why to my camera if they wanted to. The young guys were the best. Really mellow London boyas.

With this is mind I got in touch with Jamal (see ALLAH AND JALLIAH) asking if he had heard from the one of Abu Hamza's sons that I had met. To me he introduced himself as Abu Haffs, in the papers he is known as Mustapha Kamel. Mustapha perhaps not suprisingly looks like a slightly smaller version of Abu Hamza though I would imagine most people wouldn't make the connection unless they knew.

I didn't speak to him so much in the two years that I covered the protest. The last time I had seen him was outside the mosque when he had told me that I should become a Muslim. We had discussed this for a while, but it wasn't easy. I felt like a fish out of water on their turf.

I'm not sure how serendipity would square with Islam, but coming out of a well known West London shopping centre yesterday, who did I bump into but Mustapha himself. Looking good, hair slicked back with one of his friends. Apparently they are both musicians now. I hope I remembered to ask if his dad was OK but I am not sure.

He confirmed that the trial was set for the 4th July. They told me they were bringing out a cd of Islamic music and showed me the cd, which from the cover looked fairly professional. I asked them both if they would like to contribute further to the film.

"As long as it is positive, we'll talk about it." they told me. "We want to get our message across to the kids with our music."

We exchanged emails and phone numbers. I said that it felt easier for me talking to them away from the Mosque which they understood.

"You know, on Friday we get our best clothes on and we go to pray. We don't have nothing against no one."

They asked me if the bones in my ears were tribal. I can't remember what I answered. The difference between what I read in the news about these guys and what I have experienced for myself always blows me away. Its like they are talking about different people. I find it hard to believe that the 20th hijacker, Bourgass, Asif Hanif, Every Muslim accused or convicted of anything are supposed to have passed through Finsbury Park mosque circa 1999-2002.

I don't have a clue. I always thought that if none of the people I met were getting arrested, there was no harm in me talking to them. I left it to all the other news gatherers to come with their accusations and then leave. I had a lot of fun filming them doing so. If you want their news, the links are down the side of this blog. This is MALUNG TV NEWS.