ENTERTAINMENT

Galloway is such a tosser. Yeah, I know everybody knew that but now EVERYBODY knows it, know what I mean? Even when he sees the tapes hes still going to say everyone else and the tapes are wrong and he is right. He's attacking a pathetic little popstar who was saying what a nice guy he was the whole time. He was caught CHEATING- and stabbing the poor little guy in the back, he calls him a “sneak and a liar”

Barrymore tries to point out that they all fell for Big Brothers game and Galloway resorts to attacking him about his drink problem.

“Poor me, poor me, pour me another..”

“That is low man!” shouts little popstar “Wanker!”

Talking about Barrymore and Maggot crying Galloway asks “What sort of men are they?”

Real men don't cry do they George? They just sit in chairs sulking and grinding their jaws.

A friend of mine who is involved with an “unnamed left wing magazine” told me years ago that it would be really easy to get Galloway to drop himself in it- just put a camera on him and say “Go George...” I'm so glad Channel 4 have done so. Tonight is going to be unmissable. Next time Galloway sets foot in the house of commons is going to be funny too.

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OK. Monkeyboy thinks he is off on a side slant, “wheeler dealing” to ITN.

“She'll give us the equipment but she needs a premise.”

“Tell her the premise is this- the media say Finsbury park mosque is full of terrorists. I went down to check for myself and found THESE PEOPLE who said they believe THIS. The public get to hear from the tiny number of Muslims the jury aren't going to hear because they are too scared to stand up in court and say their friend is not a terrorist.”

“Can you make it a bit longer?”

“Don't help me. OK? Tell her anything you want, whatever. Just don't help me. I've been doing this for years now. Don't fuck it up. Do you remember the ITN guy you filmed bringing the FBI accusations to Hamza? That is who she sat next to downstairs. He is the Crime editor at ITN.”

“Yeah, she says he knows who we are. Called us “liberals””

“Really? Thats an American term isn't it? He's probably seen where I called him a wanker. Bollocks.”

“Look, maybe we can offer the boya's some money...they can say anything they like...”

“They are Islamists. They BELIEVE something. Do you understand? Its not a case of money. They work for ALLAH. This film will get made IF ALLAH WILLS IT- do you get it?”

“I think you are wrong. I know these people back in Brum...”

“Look mate, they like you. They feel comfortable with you and remember you from Finsbury park. Can you still suck on a mint and hold a camera straight?”

“Of course man.”

“Good. Don't do anything else.”

Days and days watching the humbling of an arrogant sounding preacher of a religion I don't share in front of a man in fur sleeves and a wig is stripping me down to the bare bones of what I think I am about, or what I am trying to do. Everyone thinks they've “got a terrorist”. I'm extremely worried that they may have “got” someone who might actually be an indispensable link in some sort of solution to the “War on Terr-r”. The more he talks the more I worry.

I question myself. What if people did watch those videos and then carry out bombings regardless of Hamzas intended meanings? I didn't like the tapes but I like this even less. I thought there would be more reporters downstairs watching him get his “comeupance”.

The only mirthful moment was when Hamza mistook Perry calling his house a “terraced house” and thought he said “terrorist house”. "I don't know why you call my house a terrorist house.." said Hamza, hurt and innocent sounding. Everyone on both benches laughed. The rest of it was textbook courtroom drama.

“Who gave you the “terrorist manual”? Where? Give me a name. Bumped into him? Where?” Perry attacks in waves. “Who prints your literature? Where? “ and about the missing “Volume 6”- “Who found it? Which child? Where? Who brought it to you?”

Hamza gave away no names. “All our community is refugees. We call each other Abu (father) this and Abu that. We all use aliases. There are spies everywhere. Anyone's parents could be tortured back home.”

“Am I in the pay of Zionists?” asked Perry. Hamza just stopped short of saying yes. I remembered how on the street he had shouted so confidently about Zionist judges and homosexual politicians. Whenever he thought Hamza was straying Perry said “Don't worry about” this or that...

“I have to worry.” he said answering a question about the state of Israel “The state of Israel it means my holocaust. My oppression. They use accusations of race hate to get away with this slow motion holocaust- are you supporting that?”

Hamza always tried to widen it to world issues the jury were not aware of- that the Americans originally propagated Jihadist theory, that MI-5 paid Lybian Islamists to try and assassinate Gadaffi, that the Zionist movement was banned as a terrorist movement by the UN, Lobbyists had secured Israel in America and in this country, The US was in debt to Zionist moneylenders to the tune of 36 trillion dollars and had sacrificed its own foreign policy with this debt.

I'm not as angry about “moneylenders” as Hamza is but the more I think about “usury” the more I agree that it is fundamentally wrong for our species.

After seeing Hamza preaching on the street I don't believe for a second he is anti-Semetic, but also he does not realize what concern his actual words cause. He seems wrapped up in the concept of martyrdom blaming it all on the Zionist media hounding him.

Perry: The foreign office is controlled by Jews?

Yes.

The media?

Yes. If a Muslim doctor had killed his patients the first thing you would have heard was that he was a Muslim, but when a Jewish man kills 250- Dr. Shipman, not a single word is mentioned about his faith.

Christians are the third enemy of Islam?

I'm not talking about the followers of Jesus. I talk about those who change the book.

Hamza keeps saying that he hates the sin not the sinner. The “wrong action”.

Churches are places of Black magic?

Yes I have seen on documentaries. In Egypt and Africa churches are full of black magic. Not all of them, I am generalising.

What if a Christian priest is a homosexual?

We are not against the sinners. We are against the sin itself. The commercialisation and legalisation of the sin...

You could have preached tolerance to all

Only a fool preaches tolerance. If someone says I worship satan and have sex with children...

Are certain people beyond redemption?

Yes, they must be stopped at every level, campaigning, boycotts, I will not raise the sword unless they raise it. You don't crack a nut with a bulldozer.

How do we know what happened as a result of your speeches? Give me a name, any name, any speech any where...

Perry grilled him more about the supporters of Shareeah and his encouragment of children to undergo “Jihad training”. Were there Jihad training camps in this country? Bomb making camps?

Anyone who Supports Shareeah law is a Supporter of Shareeah. If kids want to train why not? People would be very stupid to do bomb making camps here.

Throughout Fitz is slightly turned away from Hamza, obviously used to seeing his defendants in this position. His solicitor Mrs Arani is transfixed on his face with an unreadable expression. What Mr. Hamza is saying is what I had always hoped British Fundamental Islam actually was. It sounds much better with the anger he displayed on the street taken out of it. Of course people will think he's lying to save his ass. I don't think so. He's not really the type of person to hide his beliefs.

After the break Perry comes back with lots of accusations about Hamzas support for the GIA who were targetting schoolteachers and suchlike. Hamza said it was very confusing what was going on but he always seemed to hope for the best of the GIA until they finally admitted massacres when he denounced them and folded the Al- Ansar magazine he ran in their support. He claimed to know nothing of any connection they might have to bombings in France. Because France had collonised Algeria he could neither condemn nor condone any actions the Algerians might take.

Perry suggested that Hamza denounced the GIA for opportunistic reasons as the trustees of Finsbury park mosque were threatening his position. This led Hamza to bring up all the allegations of financial impropriety of some Pakistanis who had made themselves "trustees for life" and the trouble between Arabs and Bangladeshis he was orginally brought in to help sort out.

At one point in the afternoon Perry accused Hamza of giving misleading evidence about when MI-5 had told him he was “walking a tightrope”.

I tell the truth! You are bringing evidence under the table.

Did you ask Special branch to protect you?

Never.

You never asked for their assistance with concerns for your saftey?

Never, never ever. My wife answered the phone they told her I should ring them. She said- you have his mobile number. They told me they were concerned for my safety. I said I was not.


This is crazy, I don't know what to write down. I wonder how people will think about this trial in 50 years from now. Will Muslims think of Hamza as a martyr who stood up for the dream of an Islamic “Kalifa” or a firebrand who gave his religion a bad name? Is a “Kalifa” coming? Everyone in the courtroom seems like they are from another time except the jury.

“He'll get off you know.” said one of the journalists I knew from Finsbury park. The Muslims always hated him because his stuff goes in the Sun (with a little embelishment).
“Really? That was the last thing I would think, how do you know?”

“Oh, I've seen a few of these trials, I can see how this one is going...”

He's always been very encouraging to me.

Right at the end of the day Fitz and Perry argued before the judge without the jury about an expert witness Fitz intends to call.

“If the defendant is encouraging people to go to Bosnia and fight in no more than self defense then he is not guilty. If it extends beyond that then he is guilty. Murder is murder even if it is morally justified. An exhortation to kill in Afghanistan if not in self defense is incitement.” said the Judge.

I can't surmise Fitz's answer but he quoted suppositions from the intifada and in the courtroom it felt like he had right on his side. It was the first time he actually impressed me. The Judges answer left me with a frown as I stood at the end. I felt as if he was saying that anyone with a just cause who came to the UK to publicise atrocities and mobilise ex-pat communities would be inciting to murder. I can't see how this would stand in any other case than this one. What if a plan had been hatched here to assasinate Saddam?

Hamza paints “Londonistan” as a haven for pious islamists who fight against tyrants for freedom and can't even tell each other their real names for fear of retaliation in their homelands. Is Londonistan over? After hearing what Hamza said on the tapes, and after 7/7 will anybody care? Probably not.