You don't have to watch the news anymore!

Let Charlie watch it for you. This is fucking great.

On this one week in a thousand where I can't complain about news as it is the first time to my memory a member of the TSG has been brought to book my the media for what they do ALL THE TIME.

When I started protesting it was fairly much an accepted theology that the reason the "Mainstweam media" didn't report what the TSG were doing ALL THE TIME was because they were in colusion with them and the government. That is why Indymedia was set up.

I thought this for a while. I went to a few peaceful protests and a few which turned violent, but the violence fizzled out over the years, mainly as I have said here many times before, as a result of the FIT squad taking photographs of people and spending a lot of time trying to work out who these people were and hassling them as much as possible.

With the protesters generally getting more peaceful as a result, and the TSG still stuck in the 1980s they were really ripe for being caught out, and they were caught out badly, with the mainstream media finally turning on them. Stuff I used to see endlessly on Indymedia suddenly jumped out of the goldfish bowl. You can see it happening on one historic post from a website I was frankly bored by a long time ago.

These days I am not anti-mainstweam media. I have been trying to make stuff for TV for as long as I have been writing here. I have met good and bad journalists whilst occasionally following mad Muslims around and going to court cases. I haven't asked them, but I think the reason why the sort of stuff the TSG get up to ALL THE TIME hasn't been on TV before is because most of these journalists were as bored by all this as I was.


Rachel North has a lot of good stuff to say here
..

ANTICHRIST COOKBOOK

OK. Went down the court today, everything was delayed because of a Dartford tunnel collapse. When proceedings finally resumed the judge gave a ruling. I'm not allowed to write notes in the gallery so I'm not sure but I think the ruling sort of went-

Fark orf! You are having a Girrafe! If a person downloads something illegal, even if it can't be proved they read it they can still be charged with possessing it.

Something like that anyway. I only caught a bit of the argument twice before giving up in exasperation.

After ten minutes of this the court was dismissed till two o'clock.


In the afternoon the judge made reference to an "Anti Christ cookbook" (not sure what one of those is) and allowed the jury to be told about the conviction of Hassan (unpronouncable African name) which featured in Dawoods evidence about being asked for money for Jihadi training. He was arrested leaving the UK on a one way to Nairobi.

Anyway go back to sleep. More tomorow I think.

ITN

Whenever I saw Paul Smith doing anyting in Finsbury park I usually took a dislike to him, and ITN News in general is the most "Fox" thing in the UK. I was suprised therefore yesterday to see his piece about a British soldier who had been medically discharged being evicted from his army home. Top stuff. This was followed by a piece about the blockade of Gaza with an Irishman from the UN condemning it.

In style as a programme and watching these newsreaders speak I just think - riddled with cocaine, but I suppose even cokeheads can do good shit sometimes.

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.

------------------------------

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.

EMAIL TO ABU ABDULLAH

I am not sure exactly what i wrote to Abu Abdullah when he pulled out of our meeting this time but it went something like this.

I am sorry that our meeting has again not taken place and as you say it is my fault for not confirming. I'm afraid that I do not understand how you think that I would arrange a meeting with you and someone who has to come all the way from Oxford and not turn up. What on earth do you think I have been doing for the last year and a half? If you didn't want to do this you could have told me over a year ago and I might be a qualified teacher, or in Africa by now.

Another thing I do not understand is the fact that you are shy about cooperating with me yet you have totally cooperated with BBC and ITV news every time they come to Finsbury park when you know that all they will put on the TV is close up of your masked friends and anything you say which may be construed as threatening. If you worked for MI5 yourself you couldn't have engineered things better.

As I have said, if I was going to stitch you up with my footage I'd have done it by now, instead I am being evicted over and over again, I have no idea where I will be living at Christmas. I live below the poverty line. What do you want me to do?

MALUNG TV, BBC NEWS, In FINSBURY PARK.

The next week I couldn't convince J. to come down. Asif Hanif had become the first British suicide bomber in Israel and I knew Finsbury Park would be hot.

" They are all terrorists.. My cause is environmental. Tuvalu is disappearing into the sea and you want me to film a bunch of terrorists.,” said J over the phone.
He could not be swayed. The idea of money entered my head.

" Maybe we could earn money from this..?"

At this he got angry. I knew he had been a good professional journalist many years previously in New Zealand.

" I don't want money!..I don't want to be your employee! You want money? " He put the phone down.

I was in finsbury Park with no camera. Ah well, I suppose I will just have to watch what happens again. My mobile rang, it was the BBC.

“ I hear you get to speak to Abu Hamza “

“eer..Well..” the idea of a second mainstream media infiltration was suddenly on the cards. How had they got my number? It must have been J.

" Would you film for us? "

" Err..."

“ We’ll have a camera crew there in 10 minutes.”

Another TV station phoned. Channel 5 I think.

“ Would you like to film for us? “

“ Err.. Well I’m filming for the BBC but they haven’t offered me any money?”

“ Oh well we’ll get our stuff from ITN.”

I bumped into Colin Baker who I recognised from ITN.

“ Are you filming for the BBC? “ he asked.

“ Apparently…”

He was with another journalist I recognised from the TV who he made buy me a coffee.

" He's after a favour from me.." Colin confided.

" Sugar? " asked the other TV journalist sourly.

" One please.."

I liked Colin. He gave me loads of encouragement. I thought of the traditional rivalry between BBC and ITV news. Hmm I was up against Colin Baker. That makes me a top bollocks newsman. Rather than rivalling I showed him who Mr. Abdullah was and what I knew of what had been happening. He gave Mr. Abdullah quite a polite and professional grilling. One of the masked guys made sure he was in the background of the camera shot. A cameraman turned up for me with a burly security guard. I wasn't ready for this. I wanted to document how fundamental Islamists felt, not frighten them off. I knew the question I would get paid for but was in no way sure how to get to it with Hamza.

I asked Mr. Abdullah if he knew Asif Hanif. I could tell straight away that with a BBC camera he viewed me as having changed sides for money. When Abu Hamza preached I noticed he spoke very specifically from the Koran against suicide and against killing innocents. At the end I watched Colin in full ITN “ do you refute these allegations” mode. I think someone punched him in the guts, which looked quite funny. I went forward with huge stupid woolly microphone, South African cameraman and a burly BBC security dude in tow. I started asking if there was a truth and reconciliation council set up would he join it.

" Err between who and who? " said Hamza.

"Err..." I wasn't ready for this.

NO COMMENT shouted the short guy. He was annoying. I repeated the question, louder. He started to move from me. I suppose this was unfair journalism. No one but me had suggested the idea of a truth and reconciliation council and here I was asking him to comment on it. For the BBC. He started to walk. The last thing I wanted was to be just another media person chasing after Hamza with a camera but that was exactly what was happening. Afterwards I discussed with Colin the fundamentalists view that they broadcast what the government told them and asked him if he had ever been censored.

" I can honestly put my hand on my heart.." he started. I made him do this before he carried on.

" I can put my hand on my heart and say that I've always had complete editorial control over what I do"

He advised me against journalistic training, saying most people he knew in TV had none and to the others it was often a detriment. I didn't see his report but got the impression he thought Hamza was a terrorist. I knew a lot of my video activist friends would have thought Colin Baker was part of the establishment, but I had become bored with the moral superiority of the underground media " Us and them" attitude and wanted to find out for myself. I was determined to keep an open mind about everyone I met on this bizarre journey, Abu Hamza included.

The next week I turned up and no one wanted to talk to me especially Mr. Abdullah. I could see they felt that when I had my own camera I asked one sort of question, yet when I joined what they viewed as the opposition I had taken their line. They did not believe in a free press, but thought the press worked directly for the government. The question I had asked was genuinely mine but maybe I had been coloured by the idea of earning some money. I had no idea what would happen being more malung than professional journalist. It had gone wrong but didn’t put me off the story. I don’t think the BBC showed any of it. My second attempt at mainstream media infiltration had failed and I didn’t hear from the BBC again.

With successes and failures I had become intrigued as to who British fundamental Islamists actually were as people. I was struck by that surprise glimmer of national pride I had felt with the reality of the situation at Finsbury Park. I got the feeling that London must be one of the most successfully racially integrated places on the face of the planet and that was something to celebrate with a film, rather than making a dogmatic film complaining about Police or government.

Given the situation, it seemed to me that Britain and London in particular was actually the best place in the world to actively seek a solution to this problem and I was angry that no one in government was doing so. It seemed bizarre how the media had focused so much energy around one person, and how much Hamza was up for it, more or less giving them what they wanted. The idea of documenting the war on terror as it unfolded from the perspective of Finsbury Park mosque intrigued me.

I got a surprise call from J. Tom Hurndall; a young British Student Journalist who had been shot by Israeli troops in Palestine was being flown back to a Hampstead hospital. His parents who were flying with him were giving a press conference. I ran from my house across Hampstead heath to find lots of TV cameras in the foyer of the hospital. J. was there apparently wearing pyjama trousers and an Army Jacket with nervous security guards trying to convince him to leave. The press liaison officer of the hospital came out and invited all with press cards to the hospital conference room. We went in with everyone else.

The nervous security tried to throw J. out. The press liaison officer walked in and announced that the conference was for those with journalist cards only. We sat tight. She came back and asked me personally to leave. Not wanting to stress out Tom's parents in such conditions I tried to persuade J. to leave with me. He told me to fuck off. As he sat there I couldn't tell if he was going to cry or go ballistic. I apologised to the organisers.

The security said I should get my mate out or they would throw him out. I told them how he had been close filming battles with Riot police for 30 years and if they wanted to get him out they should get six of their friends just in case. They looked at each other nervously. The press liaison lady was really nice. I explained that I didn't want to cause trouble. I thought Tom, being a student journalist himself would have approved of us being there. Christopher Peacock from ITN was there smiling. He seemed to shine with a beatific glow. Gillian Joseph was there again. She spoke to the press liaison lady for us, which she didn't have to do; I thought it was really nice of her, she is very beautiful.

She came back in and told me everything was OK and the conference was going ahead. I didn't ask many questions of Tom's parents, the previous events having put me off my stride, but it was good to hear about the realities of Palestine from normal, Hampstead Londoners with no axe to grind no flag to fly, just a natural parents concern for a child. I got a feeling-, which I still have, that they will have an important further part to play in the story of the Palestine/Israeli conflict.

The next week Abu Hamza was still about. I found out that Blunkett had sunk himself with the wording of the very law designed to rid us all of the troublesome Hamza. As far as I could tell, you could throw someone out of the country if they had a country to go to but not if they would be stateless. When Hamza had become a British citizen he had given up his Egyptian citizenship and therefore had no country to go to and would be stateless. I wondered how David Blunkett had found himself in such a ridiculous position.

The whole thing seemed absurd to me. The Sun and the world’s media was here accusing, yet no police were arresting. I had read about Hamza's 16-year-old son being arrested for trying to break back into the mosque. Apparently he broke someone’s jaw when they came to arrest him. I had an idea to edit the stuff we had of the kids protest into a film and thought it would be great to have an interview with Abu Hamzas son in it.

I tried to ask Hamza. I was without a camera in the media scrum but he kept turning his face away from me, trying to ignore me, obviously still angry about my BBC ventures before, which I was also frantically trying to explain. Journalists were shouting at me to fuck off. As he was turning his face this way and that I didn't notice two police had joined in until they had the short angry guy with his arms up behind his back. All the supposedly dangerous guys with masks stepped back. Not thinking twice and used to speaking to Police in a lot more heated situations on Mayday demos I jumped in to reason with them. They eventually let go and the Finsbury crew moved off. It was at this point I sort of decided to give up with Hamza. He just seemed to egotistical for me and too into his media image.

I didn't agree with a lot of what Mr Abdullah said, but got the gut feeling that he was speaking from his heart. His whole demeanour was just totally unterrorist like. And he stood next to Hamza. I decided to concentrate more on him if he would speak to me. I remembered my all time favourite documentary Nick Broomfield had made about Eugene Terrablanche in South Africa where he had gone after Terrablanche but ended up making a film with his chauffeur. I wondered if I was in a similar situation.

I managed to befriend a younger Muslim guy who had been watching my antics with amusement. We went to an Internet cafe where he showed me his website which had animated gifs of flamethrowers burning U.S, U.N and Israeli flags. He didn't seem like a terrorist or likely to blow himself up at any point in the near future but he knew what he believed and why.

Like a lot of young Muslims he is fiercely intelligent, but he had a laid back demeanour and could listen to my criticisms and come back with well thought out measured answers. I learnt a lot from him about how young British Islamists felt. Unfortunately he would not appear on camera, a situation I was to encounter all too often with young fundamental Islamists. He spoke to me about Taliban trucks driving through Karachi recruiting youngsters for the war in Afghanistan. Apparently a lot of kids jumped in without telling their parents where they were going.

He said that Abu Hamza had advised young Muslims in Finsbury Park to go to Afghanistan just to know what it felt like to live under real Islamic law. He told me that Taliban just meant " student." I asked him whether they were teaching each other to use Kalashnikovs in the Mosque before it closed. He said he had never seen a gun in the mosque and that surely if they were going to do that, hiding in a safe house would be less blatant than testing out guns in a mosque. He thought the story laughable. I asked him if he or his friends had ever fired a Kalashnikov.

" No have you? " he asked

I had to admit that I had. A lot of travelers in Asia told of a place in Pakistan called Dara where they made Kalashnikovs and other handguns with machine tools. Apparently kids made bullets in the street by hand. As I was in Peshawar I thought what the hell. I had befriended a German guy. I don't usually get on with Germans, yet when you find one with a sense of humor they usually have a wickedly dry sense of humor. He was that sort of German. Dara was in tribal territory officially off limits to foreigners but we thought we'd give it a go. The bus, as usual for Pakistan, was stuffed full of men with no women anywhere. One of the other passengers turned round.

" Where are you going? "

" Dara. " we answered.

" What for? "

" We need weapons!" I announced dramatically.

" You can't go to Dara! Dara is tribal territory!"

" My friend is tribal from England and I am tribal from Germany." my new German friend answered.

" Oh..." I watched the guy explain this to the person sitting next to him in Urdu and nodded seriously and aggressively in the right places.

" Oh..." said the other guy seriously. He had obviously not heard of tribal wars in the UK and was having trouble picturing tattooed and pierced warriors fighting tribal wars against... err...beefeaters?

We carried this on in Dara where as promised we saw kids making bullets in the street. We were offered an Arnie style pump action shotgun to fire or a Kalashnikov and went for the later. We tried to order 400 of each for our tribal wars back home. The vendor helpfully offered us pen guns, which were more concealable. They were the size of a pen but much heavier. He fired one into a wall, which made me jump back.

" Fucking hell, you could kill someone with that! "

On the way home we were pulled off the bus at a Police roadblock. They gave us a full on search asking us if we had bought pen guns. Unfortunately they found a lump of hash in my pocket. The guy in charge who seemed very camp made a big deal of having to arrest me. I offered them money.

" Maybe you want to say that a little slower for him." my German friend said helpfully.

" Do you want money?" I asked again. He reached into my pocket and grabbed my money.

" Yes this is your money!" he answered and put it back.

I got a sinking feeling. I was composing a letter in my head to my mum.

“ Don't pay any baksheesh, just leave me here. I am really sorry.. “

but my German friend carried on talking to them calmly. The guy in charge was still saying how he was going to arrest me and take me to jail as he flagged down another bus, put us on it and waved goodbye. It was at that point that I realized they were all stoned. I waved goodbye smiling. They were all in fits of laughter and were probably pleased to have another lump of hash to smoke.

Not knowing what to do I transferred all we had on tape from the kids and Finsbury Park to my computer and looked through it all. I decided to have a go at editing the kids stuff into a film. At the beginning, to put it all in a strange context I put Mr. Abdullah in shouting

" And you accept Bush and Blair to say that this was done in the name of Jesus? Jesus, peace be upon him said Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth. Is this peace? Is this what Jesus was talking about? "

My first attempt at editing was really obsessive. I hardly slept for ten days and was constantly stoned. As I put music to film I was totally re-awed by what the kids had actually done. I put Hamza's comments about the kids running the country at the end and Mr. Abdullah:

" If you got a kind little furry animal, it doesn't do anyone any harm and you push it into a corner and its being prodded and poked, eventually that animal will turn round and bite you. This is what is happening in the Muslim world today."

I had no idea what had happened in the mosque before, but what Mr. Abdullah had told me that day, four days into the war I thought was worth reporting.

It was decided that concrete blocks be put up around parliament to deter suicide bombers. Now before the Iraq war there were no concrete blocks. Apparently Iraq had been attacked for our safety, and after the event concrete blocks go up. Hmmm...Something about this made me wonder if someone inside government had the feeling that attacking Iraq had made London less safe. With these blocks being the only physical thing we could see of the expense the government had gone to on taxpayers behalf I wondered if these weren't the most expensive concrete blocks in the world.

THE LONG HAUL

I didn't join in at Finsbury Park for a while, but maintained a presence without a camera; really just so Mr. Abdullah knew I was still there. I spoke further to some of the younger guys there. I was not surprised, this being England, that they were really friendly to me. These were the guys I had hoped I would find. They could see through my chosen image and we could converse without fear of each other, even though older Muslims told them not to talk to me. They were really enjoying themselves, obviously quite tickled by their sheik's badass-edness. They loved the media scrum, waving their hands in front of world media cameras now being a regular part of their Friday prayers made this a pretty unique mosque.

I remembered going to church as a kid and wondered how I would have felt if the vicar at my local church had suddenly become public enemy number 1. As the worlds media pundits came and went, with no interest in how any of these guys felt, completely Hamza focused for half an hour and then gone I realized why this little bit of the war on terror seemed so one dimensional and sterile. I never saw the same TV journalist twice. Sticking around gave me a feeling of who was who and how things went here. I also realized that maybe time was on my side. I could learn to film, make mistakes, but as long as I was honest, listened and was looking for peace there was a reason for being here. I also just wanted to know what would happen next.

I was deliberately unjournalistic, and spoke about my own opinions without fear. Although I was so obviously not a Muslim, I enjoyed being a local. I asked as many people as possible what happened in the mosque while it was open. I got a feeling that these people were local Finsbury Park Muslims, strange conspiracy theorists, but not international terrorists. I wondered if all the terrorists weren't long gone. The guys in masks the media had ominously focused on didn't say much but I didn't expect them to.

At moments when hysteria had calmed for a bit I watched Hamza talk to journalists calmly, without fuss. Often he would turn down interviews and then get drawn into conversations anyway. Being a preacher, he had the preacher’s love of talking. I noticed he had an unintentionally comical foreigners way of speaking English which reminded me strangely of my father, a Hungarian immigrant who arrived here after World War Two.

As there were a maximum of 3 women at the mosque at any given week I wondered how female journalists would be treated. There was no problem, and when I quizzed them afterwards they often remarked with surprise how polite he was. I wondered from a distance who Abu Hamza actually was. I hadn't warmed to him, and would have agreed with the Sun's portrayal of him if it weren’t for the man next to him.

Mr. Abdullah just didn't seem like the sort of person who would secretly plot terrorist outrages, or be so devoted to someone who would. He wasn't an immigrant and spoke with a totally London attitude and a totally London accent. I really wanted to talk to him some more, I still didn't have my own camera and it was a mark of how deeply unpopular Hamza is that I couldn't find one person with a camera in the activist community who was willing to come near to Finsbury Park and this story, and no one more professional than I was here documenting it either.

I spoke to a lot of friends one reaction typified them all:

"You're wasting your time. Its all just a three ring circus. The media is totally controlled. Even people like Tony Benn are in on it. They are the worst, because they pretend there is some sort of opposition. It's a fucking charade."

"But you don't know that for certain" I countered. "I'm finding out for myself, I can't give up just because you say so."

"You're wasting your time."

"Stop saying that."

I took a copy of my finished film about the kids to Finsbury Park one Friday. I approached Mr. Abdullah for the first time since our falling out over the BBC thing.

"Here you go, this is about the kids protest. Thanks for being in it anyway.."

I didn't stick around. After the break I had from these people I felt like an alien, by most people I had been at best tolerated. I wasn't a Muslim; I wasn't there to pray. This was their deal and I was a kaffir.

A while later I saw on the news that the F.B.I said they had a prisoner in Guantanamo bay who was implicating Abu Hamza as an Al Qaida recruiter. I got to Finsbury Park on a motorbike with a friend G. Christopher Peacock was there complete with a satellite transmitter van with an ariel heading off into the skies.

" Hello, remember me? " I smiled

" Yes I do. Who was your friend? I thought we were all going to be thrown out! "

I had met Christopher at the hospital where they had brought Tom Hurdall in Hampstead (see MALUNG-TV, BBC NEWS IN FINSBURY PARK)

Outside the mosque G engaged Christopher Peacock in friendly debate about the issues involved. He was a Punjabi from the West Midlands and had twin sisters who had converted to Islam. Their husbands were involved in Islamic relief efforts. I liked Christopher. He had a disquietening beatific glow around him. There was another TV journalist I recognized who was looking much more nervous. As ITV fired up their satellite G. went over the road to the jewelers to ask if we could plug in the battery charger for our camera. I remember as I crouched over the camera box I closed my eyes and prayed for 5 minutes although I have no idea who I was praying to. As Islamists gathered Chris and the other journalist were up by the front talking to the police. I thought I would have a bit of fun.

" Everything OK? " I asked.

" Yes."

" They don't like you lot do they?"

" No "

" You'll be O.K. Just don’t get in front of them while they are praying because if they are bending down praying to Allah and they get up and see you there they will come and punch you. "

" Err... I'll have to take an editorial decision.." started the other guy. He was a bit of a knob end.

We didn't film Abu Hamza preaching, instead choosing to leave the battery charging for as long as possible. The comedy terrorist had struck that week and I was trying to compose a question for Hamza which would link in with this.

" Mr. Hamza is the comedy terrorist any challenge to your role in British Society? "

I noticed that this was easily his worst moment I had witnessed. Mr. Abdullah was almost holding him up as he was preaching. Was this because he was guilty? Or because he was scared now the F.B.I. had got involved? Maybe he was ill. It was strange to see him, usually so blustery and arrogant, looking so frail. As Muslims prayed G. ran to the shop to get the battery out. I looked round. Where the fuck were the TV people? I thought they had gone home. I peeped round the corner. They were halfway down the alley. I couldn't help myself bursting into laughter. A chair was brought forward for Hamza to sit in we all stood around talking. Hamza must have been wondering where the TV crews were. As he got up they came round the corner. The other guy, Paul Smtih I think his name is pushed himself up as close to Hamza as he could get waving the files in his hand.

" These F.B.I. files say that you recruited for Al Qaida. " For a change the police had decided to get between Islamists and media people.

With the police right there things got really strange. I didn't hear what the policeman said.

I heard Paul Smith answer " He is he's making one. (A statement)

A few people were shouting " All lies! All crap! "

Hamza said, " Do you believe the F.B.I. yourself? Come on. "

Again I didn't hear what the policeman said but the short angry guy shouted, " What do you want me to do fly? Do your job! "

I never got a good vibe from this guy even when I had tried to talk the police out of arresting him. He was by far the angriest Muslim I had met in Finsbury Park at any time. Christopher chose to stay well out of the frame. Chicken! I was sick of this. I wondered how anyone could take it seriously. The F.B.I with a budget of millions accuses from America, do we get F.B.I agents here at Finsbury Park to arrest Hamza? Or even wave files for themselves? Do the British police want to arrest him? So who do we get doing the F.B.I's business? Paul fucking Smith from ITV.

After meeting Chris, Colin Baker and Gillian Joseph, I no longer felt that the media was controlled. I thought these guys honestly reflected the views of the majority, and I was in the minority. I'm sure Paul felt he was just doing his job too, but I could see also how to any Islamist he was here as a representative of the F.B.I. I was pissed off with everyone. I had thought for a while that everyone was playing up to their roles of who they expected to find. Media were finding terrorists, Islamists were finding evil Zionist media.

No one was looking for a peaceful solution anywhere. I wondered what God would thing of it all. He, or she seemed a long way away from here. I thought as it was open season on kangaroo's in Britain’s most famous kangaroo court I would have a go at a bit of bouncing myself.

" The British government have been talking for years to people they accuse of terrorism in Northern Ireland. Have they been talking to you about peace in this country? " I asked.

Hamza said something about the British government and the Zionists liking I.R.A. terrorists. I asked him if David Blunkett had ever spoken to him personally.

" I wouldn't speak to him."

They got Hamza into a car and were putting newspapers in front of the windscreen to block cameras. One of the TV cameramen clocked the short angry guy on the head with his camera for which he wanted him arrested for assault.

" So are you going to clear this up? " asked Smith

" This is a cowboys court, get the people in a proper court. Where are your weapons of mass destruction? Come on." said Hamza.

" A kangaroo court." interjected the short guy. " You've got a liar as a prime minister, a fanatic as a president of America, don't expect us to comment on a bunch of jokers. And you work for them. "

I started throwing a few things in just to try and get them talking to me. I remember thinking that I was unsure if I was trying to make comedy or serious documentary.

" Why don't you go and find that butcher Putin. " Ah, it was true Vladimir Putin was in the country talking to Blair. " Three days now he's been in this country go and talk to him. "

G. was doing a great job filming, and didn't smell of alcohol too much but was being pushed back the same as every other camera.

" Brothers we need to have discipline! Brothers back off! Let the Police do their job. " Mr. Abdullah was shouting.

I noticed how he had always been a calming influence on the media scrums. On the weeks he wasn't there things were much more out of control.

" He wants to leave now so if you can all move out of the way the vehicle can leave." The policeman sounded like a teacher in a playground.

There was more pandemonium, G. was trying to film. One of the masked guys who had never spoken to me turned to me and said

" You know we're not terrorists don't you? " I just put my hand on his shoulder.

The short guy, Abu Aziz was really angry. I tried to ask them all if they wanted to go to the Sun newspaper to talk to them. I thought this would be great for my film. The short guy went on

" You've seen the behavior of the nice, neutral British Police. When Mr. Abdullah was preaching, one of them came up to me and said. He is on the verge of making a homophobic statement. But all the Police were blind dumb and stupid when we were assaulted by cameramen. "

Mr. Abdullah pulled him back and started talking to me. I looked for G. shouting to him to come and film, the guy who was stalling him saw I was talking to Mr. Abdullah and let him past.

" These are the police who are implementing man made laws to suppress their fellow human beings. "

" Police? The prime ministers pimps. " Interjected the short guy.

" But we've got the best Police force in the world though, haven't we? Compared to other countries. " I answered. In all the time I had been there I had only seen police being polite to them, closing the road for them, individual Policemen would sometimes be making conversation with Islamists, mask or no mask to ease tension. None of them wanted to be on TV or to arrest anyone if they could possibly help it.

" Yes, compared to other countries, we have the best police in the world but at the end of the day its all rubbish because they want to sit and accept man made laws but not Gods laws. At the end of the day a homosexual a paedophile, everyone else has got rights. When it comes to a Muslim, charge him with terrorism act 2000 if he preaches what’s in the Koran, that’s a threat to society, and he'd locked up with no trial, but a paedophile, a murderer, everyone else, goes to prison, for a short time, and they come out and do it again. What kind of justice? There needs to be balance. At the moment these Zionist Jews that are running your country, and America and most of Europe, there is no justice for a Muslim. There’s justice for Hindu's Sikh's everyone else but there is no rights for a Muslim. At the end of the day they have to do what they have to do, we have to do what we have to do. They can physically torture us but they can never touch what is in our hearts. "

He continued
" These governments are continuing strutting their stuff like they have in Afghanistan, and Pakistan, next will be Iran after that its Syria then Somali and after Somalia they are going to starve Turkey. They are not strong enough to attack Turkey but in five or six years time they will attack Turkey. These are the plans of the Pajan. "

My all time favorite Muslim on the scene was an old guy with a great smile who was always with Mr. Abdullah. His name was Hajj. He interjected

" You want to know the honest truth? You know David Ike? Go and get his latest book. "

Mr. Abdullah had calmed down a bit and left saying that it was nice talking to us.

I watched Christopher Peacocks report and laughed when he said they got out of the way due to respect for Friday prayers. I got the feeling most British people would agree with his take on things. I laughed at another episode of how Hamza, through the TV been turned into a cartoon celebrity. G. and I reviewed what we had on camera.

" I did all that! and without even have a drink first! said G.

It was just what I was after. We had fun, had a completely different take than the mainstream news, coming from and proud of, a distinctly different part of British society, and we managed to document what a British fundamental Islamist actually thought. I was surprised again at the Icke reference, as I knew David Icke wasn't a Muslim. I wondered how he would feel about having Abu Hamza's friends quoting him.

I felt I had learnt a lot more, from first hand than I had watching TV or reading the Sun. Finsbury park mosque, on the street has become like no other mosque in the world. I got much more of a feeling of how Muslims must be feeling worldwide. Although I knew the police in Finsbury Park seemed fair, I wondered about this catch all terrorism act 2000 and how it must feel as a Muslim to be at risk of arrest from it.

The overall feeling I got was of a people longing for a religious homeland. Christians claim Britain is a Christian country because the Queen goes to church. Afghanistan was the only religious Muslim country and as such attracted Muslims who believed in the fundamentals of their religion from all over the world. Were they training for terrorism? Or war? How much similarity has this with Ireland? If we are going to globalize isn't sorting this sort of thing what globalization is for? Is Mo Molams obvious talent for this sort of thing sitting idle? I could see these people felt they were at war. With apostate governments in Muslim countries, with the Russian government who were attacking Muslims in Chechnya, and now the Allies who attacked Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn't a war for oil, but a holy war where they felt they were justified, even compelled to be involved in by God.

Its all rubbish. If David Blunkett and Abu Hamza are as proud to be British as I or as any of the Policemen here are, I thought they should be put in a Big Bother situation together. For the safety of their fellow Londoners of course. I eventually sent this as a proposal to channel 4. I saw the chairman of Endemol wanted to do a political Big Brother and thought Hamza and Blunkett to be the ideal candidates. I thought the programme would be highly watchable, and would fulfill all channel 4's remits as well, involving as it did, disability, race, minority groups etc. A couple of months later I got a reply going something like, we haven't chosen it this time, but don't let that put you off trying!