Someone wants to go back to jail. In the Sun (who owe me money) today:
TERROR fanatic Abu Izzadeen was freed from prison today — and shamelessly attacked the poppy as he left.
The al-Qaeda supporter — caged for inciting hatred and raising funds for terrorism — got a hero's welcome from 50 bearded cronies at the gates of Pentonville nick in North London...
...It's believed Izzadeen — formerly known as plain old Trevor Brooks — will now take centre stage as the public face of Muslim extremism in Britain.
His every word was cheered by a flock including sidekick Anjem Choudary and jailed hate cleric Abu Hamza...
Hamza came out and cheered and then went back into solitary confinement? I didn't think he would be allowed to do that but if The Sun say so it must be true.
..
Showing posts with label the sun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the sun. Show all posts
October 28, 2010
October 26, 2010
HOUSE HUNTING
Reported in The Sun (Who owe me money)
HATE preacher Abu Hamza's house has finally been sold — with the £257,000 proceeds going to UK taxpayers.
Jubilant investigators have also clawed back £3,000 from accounts linked to the hook-handed cheat. It means he can at last cough up towards a £300,000 legal bill — four years after his conviction for soliciting murder during hate-filled sermons.
Hamza, 52, tried to thwart the sale of the four-bed home he bought for cash in Greenford, West London, by claiming a sister living in Egypt owned it.Last night Legal Services Commission chairman Sir Bill Callaghan said: "We will not tolerate people attempting to hide assets to get defence costs paid."
A joyful Whitehall source added: "In the end he had to pay."
..
HATE preacher Abu Hamza's house has finally been sold — with the £257,000 proceeds going to UK taxpayers.
Jubilant investigators have also clawed back £3,000 from accounts linked to the hook-handed cheat. It means he can at last cough up towards a £300,000 legal bill — four years after his conviction for soliciting murder during hate-filled sermons.
Hamza, 52, tried to thwart the sale of the four-bed home he bought for cash in Greenford, West London, by claiming a sister living in Egypt owned it.Last night Legal Services Commission chairman Sir Bill Callaghan said: "We will not tolerate people attempting to hide assets to get defence costs paid."
A joyful Whitehall source added: "In the end he had to pay."
..
February 26, 2009
THE SUN NEWSPAPER ARE LYING, THIEVING BASTARDS
Yeah you fuckers, give me my money you thieving bastards! ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!
What should happen when a paper apologizes...
What should happen when a paper apologizes...
October 21, 2008
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE FLOATING OVER NORWICH
via Mr Camel
A FORMER Top Gun told yesterday how he was ordered to shoot down a massive UFO — over NORWICH.
RAF controllers told US pilot Milton Torres to “lock on” and launch all 24 of his rockets over the city.
Tale ... Milton Torres as a young man, and today
Tale ... Milton Torres as a young man, and today
But as he came within seconds of firing at the alien intruder — “the size of an aircraft carrier” on his radar — it vanished at 10,000mph.
The amazing close encounter is revealed in secret Ministry of Defence X-Files which are declassified today.
Milton said: “It was some kind of alien snooping over England. I guess we’ll never know what it was.”
UPDATE: Also from Mr Camel check this floating over Turkey
A FORMER Top Gun told yesterday how he was ordered to shoot down a massive UFO — over NORWICH.
RAF controllers told US pilot Milton Torres to “lock on” and launch all 24 of his rockets over the city.
Tale ... Milton Torres as a young man, and today
Tale ... Milton Torres as a young man, and today
But as he came within seconds of firing at the alien intruder — “the size of an aircraft carrier” on his radar — it vanished at 10,000mph.
The amazing close encounter is revealed in secret Ministry of Defence X-Files which are declassified today.
Milton said: “It was some kind of alien snooping over England. I guess we’ll never know what it was.”
UPDATE: Also from Mr Camel check this floating over Turkey
September 11, 2008
"AL-QAEDA BRUV" replies to The Sun
In all my time in Finsbury park I never really had anything against the Sun newspaper. They cover The War on Terr-r their way, I do mine. They steal my video and present it as their own exclusive. Whoever wrote this story has no interest in news, truth or the 7/7 victim they called for the quote. The Sun are scum. What a surprise.
September 10, 2008
"AL-Qaeda Bruv" in giving painting to Malung TV News Sicko Blogger Shocker
I've just got to find a place to put it! Here it is sideways on my shelf, the safest place for the moment. Musa came round, we filmed a bit of his reaction to The Sun's page 26 "Shocker" I'm having a few technical difficulties but it should be up soon.
August 10, 2008
THE SUN STILL OWES ME MONEY
...The Sun let loose a tirade against the judges, and even went as far as to single out Maltese Judge Bonello – describing Malta as an “obscure country”,
...In an article carried on the same day, titles, “Euro clowns let Hamza off hook– in a typical Sun pun Hamza al-Masri’s two partially amputated arms which have been fitted with hooks – also drives home the paper’s very questionable point that, “The nine European judges all come from countries which are unlikely to be targets in the war on terror.”..
...The other eight judges are David Björgvinsson from Iceland, Paivi Hirvelä from Finland, Nebojsa Vucinic from Montenegro, Mihai Poalelungi from Moldavia, Jan Šikuta from Slovakia, Ljiljana Mijovic from Bosnia Herzegovina, Ledi Bianku from Albania and Pole Lech Garlicki.
...In an article carried on the same day, titles, “Euro clowns let Hamza off hook– in a typical Sun pun Hamza al-Masri’s two partially amputated arms which have been fitted with hooks – also drives home the paper’s very questionable point that, “The nine European judges all come from countries which are unlikely to be targets in the war on terror.”..
...The other eight judges are David Björgvinsson from Iceland, Paivi Hirvelä from Finland, Nebojsa Vucinic from Montenegro, Mihai Poalelungi from Moldavia, Jan Šikuta from Slovakia, Ljiljana Mijovic from Bosnia Herzegovina, Ledi Bianku from Albania and Pole Lech Garlicki.
February 12, 2008
TELL ME A STORY
This is why I buy tabloid newspapers. Our nations youngest suicide bomber is actually a really fascinating story destined to be made into a Michael Winterbottom movie anytime soon. The British shot his father whose friends encouraged him to revenge his death by learning how to blow himself up. He let slip to his mum one night who didn't want to loose another family member and got him "people smuggled" to the UK where he told the whole story, detonators and all to immigration in Croydon.
"Talibrum" refers to a SUN EXCLUSIVE!!!!!
Apparently there are people from the Midlands and people from Yorkshire in the Taliban. No shit. Really? Hajj was telling me that in the good old days of "Londonistan" Muslims from all over the UK were buying properties in special towns the Taliban were building for foreigners who wanted to experience life under Islamic law.
heres another talibrum from 2006
oh and there is some justice coming to Guantanamo bay apparently.
December 06, 2007
DREAMS OF SHIT AND HANGING
I woke up with a start this morning. I had one of those epic dreams which seems to go on forever. The low points were horrible. I was working in a restaurant. One of the staff pushed someone in with a rope around their neck, threw the other end over a high rafter and hung the person he was shouting at everyone else brandishing a gun. Everyone knew this person and was in fear of him. I was also, though I had a little gun in my pocket I was scared to try and use it and miss. I went down to the basement of the restaurant with this person and pretended to make small talk, clearing the tables.
In another part of this dream I was wandering with a group of people who were all naked. We reached a sort of marble platform which had plants intertwined with strange metal structures. needed a dump and told the others it was OK to shit anywhere. Pretty soon there was what looked like big rabbit droppings in amongst the plants. Then a group of people in chefs clothes came and started pouring chocolate onto the plateau. We hadn't realised it was a chocolate making facility and didn't tell them we had shit on it.
What is all that about then?
I have been able to get to the trial a couple of times. Cross examination is supposed to be the most interesting part but in this case it hasn't been. Its all a bit predictable. I would say it was a "boring score draw" between Hamid and the prosecution.
"You are a terrorist recruiter"
"No I'm not."
etc etc.
Hamid appears to be playing himself with his "I can assure you 150 percent"s and "I couldn't tell you pecifically" , I'm not sure who the prosecution guy is playing.
Hamid said he belonged to one of the same "four schools" that 90% of Muslims belong to. He added that Hamza had banned these schools from Finsbury park Mosque.
The day before yesterday was a bit more interesting as we had some live witnesses incliding Phil Rees. I got a chance to speak to him and had a look at his site after, I didn't realise he was behind probably the only "War on Terror" based stuff I have seen on TV that I liked.
Nasreen Suleaman, who had found all of the people who appeared in "Don't Panic I'm Islamic" also gave evidence and appeared in the Sun the next day for her trouble. the most interesting witness was a young Turkish Muslim who took over the witness box and told the court off for holding Hamid, as he was innocent. He said Hamid had always tried to steer him to the correct path, away from drugs and crime which had worked sometimes. He had never been in favour of or tried to recruit him for terrorism. He leaned right in to the Microphone to talk about conspiracy theories etc and didn't want to leave at the end, again protesting Hamid's innocence.
Another bearded young Muslim from Weybridge claimed Hamid had helped him get off alchoholism and lent him the money to accompany his group on a trip to Morrocco. He hadn't paid the full amount back. Cross examined he said that on the trip everyone argued with everyone else. They were angry with him because he snored loudly in the van. The trip was a success in that they achieved their aim of getting to Morrocco and getting back.
A very fetching blonde Irish woman spoke, saying she was an athiest who often talked to Hamid at his dawah stall and over coffee. She said he was frequesntly abused by passers by who called him "terrorist" and that when she was with him, passing Muslims also abused him for talking to her, calling her "Kaffir".
In the afternoon the defence showed the jury some of Hamid's conspiracy theory videos starting with Illuminazi, at which point I left because I've seen them all a long time ago. The Turkish Muslim guy who gave evidence gave me a couple of leaflets which had been on Hamid's stall including Terrorism and Islam: Exploding the Myths.
Yesterday I managed a few hours of cross examination which went back to the You're a terrorist recruiter- No I'm not strand of peculiarity. The prosecution guy is saying he is, Hamid is saying he isn't. For more information click on the links below.
Cheers.
Times, The Sun, The Sun again,The Mirror, Daily Mail, UPI ,etc
All of this has been synthesised from one journalist's work. Cos he is working for an agency he doesn't get credited so I'll credit him here. Well done Paddy.
In another part of this dream I was wandering with a group of people who were all naked. We reached a sort of marble platform which had plants intertwined with strange metal structures. needed a dump and told the others it was OK to shit anywhere. Pretty soon there was what looked like big rabbit droppings in amongst the plants. Then a group of people in chefs clothes came and started pouring chocolate onto the plateau. We hadn't realised it was a chocolate making facility and didn't tell them we had shit on it.
What is all that about then?
I have been able to get to the trial a couple of times. Cross examination is supposed to be the most interesting part but in this case it hasn't been. Its all a bit predictable. I would say it was a "boring score draw" between Hamid and the prosecution.
"You are a terrorist recruiter"
"No I'm not."
etc etc.
Hamid appears to be playing himself with his "I can assure you 150 percent"s and "I couldn't tell you pecifically" , I'm not sure who the prosecution guy is playing.
Hamid said he belonged to one of the same "four schools" that 90% of Muslims belong to. He added that Hamza had banned these schools from Finsbury park Mosque.
The day before yesterday was a bit more interesting as we had some live witnesses incliding Phil Rees. I got a chance to speak to him and had a look at his site after, I didn't realise he was behind probably the only "War on Terror" based stuff I have seen on TV that I liked.
Nasreen Suleaman, who had found all of the people who appeared in "Don't Panic I'm Islamic" also gave evidence and appeared in the Sun the next day for her trouble. the most interesting witness was a young Turkish Muslim who took over the witness box and told the court off for holding Hamid, as he was innocent. He said Hamid had always tried to steer him to the correct path, away from drugs and crime which had worked sometimes. He had never been in favour of or tried to recruit him for terrorism. He leaned right in to the Microphone to talk about conspiracy theories etc and didn't want to leave at the end, again protesting Hamid's innocence.
Another bearded young Muslim from Weybridge claimed Hamid had helped him get off alchoholism and lent him the money to accompany his group on a trip to Morrocco. He hadn't paid the full amount back. Cross examined he said that on the trip everyone argued with everyone else. They were angry with him because he snored loudly in the van. The trip was a success in that they achieved their aim of getting to Morrocco and getting back.
A very fetching blonde Irish woman spoke, saying she was an athiest who often talked to Hamid at his dawah stall and over coffee. She said he was frequesntly abused by passers by who called him "terrorist" and that when she was with him, passing Muslims also abused him for talking to her, calling her "Kaffir".
In the afternoon the defence showed the jury some of Hamid's conspiracy theory videos starting with Illuminazi, at which point I left because I've seen them all a long time ago. The Turkish Muslim guy who gave evidence gave me a couple of leaflets which had been on Hamid's stall including Terrorism and Islam: Exploding the Myths.
Yesterday I managed a few hours of cross examination which went back to the You're a terrorist recruiter- No I'm not strand of peculiarity. The prosecution guy is saying he is, Hamid is saying he isn't. For more information click on the links below.
Cheers.
Times, The Sun, The Sun again,The Mirror, Daily Mail, UPI ,etc
All of this has been synthesised from one journalist's work. Cos he is working for an agency he doesn't get credited so I'll credit him here. Well done Paddy.
April 18, 2007
November 10, 2005
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Ok, to counter Big Dogs arguments still further, the Sun, the most rightwing paper in Britain blamed the burning of France on lack of opportunities for people of colour, and racism from the Police in ghettoised communities and NOT Islamic terrorists. Its headline attacks the Conservative party leadership candidates for not supporting Blairs 90 day terror laws.
R+B tells of people wanting to deport young Africans born in France, he rightly asks, as they must be asking "Where to?"
I didn't realise till I looked at the Sun's map, quite how widespread this rioting is. I wonder if the balance has tipped in France?
R+B tells of people wanting to deport young Africans born in France, he rightly asks, as they must be asking "Where to?"
I didn't realise till I looked at the Sun's map, quite how widespread this rioting is. I wonder if the balance has tipped in France?
August 05, 2005
Get back in your cave!
We sort of concieved of socialistwanker as a sort of "anti-sun tabloid" but even I have to laugh at this.
Here is another very important campaign the Sun are involved in.
Here is another very important campaign the Sun are involved in.
July 09, 2005
MALUNG TV NEWS LONDON
Jamal called me. Told me to call Abdullah. I called Abdullah. He sounded very stressed. Apparently the Sun and the Daily mail, an arabic newspaper called Al Hayat and a South African radio program have called him continualy. they are giving him the impression that he and Omar Bakri are to be arrested very soon.
In the Suns case this is probably why.
In the name of New York, Washington, Bali, Nairobi, Madrid and now London, we shall have vengeance and justice. Britain is crawling with suspected terrorists and those who give them succor. The Government must act without delay, round up this enemy in our midst and lock them in internment camps.Our safety must not play second fiddle to their supposed “rights.”Nor must those who preach foul sermons on our streets be allowed to do so any longer.
Free speech is precious, but these wicked men mock our tolerance.
"I'm not one to run and hide." he told me. "If I shut up they will blame us."
When they arrested Abu Hamza I wasn't sure what to think. For the year I saw him preach I didn't warm to him, but all his anger was directed at the rich and powerful, none of it at me. I was more offended by Abdullahs khudbahs to be honest, but for very different reasons than the Mirror. When I first arrived he preached against people with facial piercings for 3 weeks. He is certainly "extreme" but comes across more EXTREMELY south London than anything else regardless of what he hollers in the street.
I remember when we fell out I sent him a screaming email saying such things.
"Look. If you don't agree to do this documentary now and a bomb goes off ALL of you will be taken off the street and I will be the only one standing outside Belmarsh protesting and everyone will be wondering why."
That was over a year ago (see CAN I DO A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT YOU MR ABDULLAH, FUCKING SHEEP! BAA! BAA!, HAVE I GOT LEPROSY? etc etc etc)
I never got the impression that Barry the Boss ever had the remotest intentions of arresting Abdullah.
In the Suns case this is probably why.
In the name of New York, Washington, Bali, Nairobi, Madrid and now London, we shall have vengeance and justice. Britain is crawling with suspected terrorists and those who give them succor. The Government must act without delay, round up this enemy in our midst and lock them in internment camps.Our safety must not play second fiddle to their supposed “rights.”Nor must those who preach foul sermons on our streets be allowed to do so any longer.
Free speech is precious, but these wicked men mock our tolerance.
"I'm not one to run and hide." he told me. "If I shut up they will blame us."
When they arrested Abu Hamza I wasn't sure what to think. For the year I saw him preach I didn't warm to him, but all his anger was directed at the rich and powerful, none of it at me. I was more offended by Abdullahs khudbahs to be honest, but for very different reasons than the Mirror. When I first arrived he preached against people with facial piercings for 3 weeks. He is certainly "extreme" but comes across more EXTREMELY south London than anything else regardless of what he hollers in the street.
I remember when we fell out I sent him a screaming email saying such things.
"Look. If you don't agree to do this documentary now and a bomb goes off ALL of you will be taken off the street and I will be the only one standing outside Belmarsh protesting and everyone will be wondering why."
That was over a year ago (see CAN I DO A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT YOU MR ABDULLAH, FUCKING SHEEP! BAA! BAA!, HAVE I GOT LEPROSY? etc etc etc)
I never got the impression that Barry the Boss ever had the remotest intentions of arresting Abdullah.
May 26, 2005
THE SUN SLEEPING
I cant believe the Sun have missed this one.
waking up and switching the TV on, I saw an educational programme for kids which went straight for the jugular of the oil companies. Highly political stuff which is going to make activists out of the lot of them.
Hilarious.
waking up and switching the TV on, I saw an educational programme for kids which went straight for the jugular of the oil companies. Highly political stuff which is going to make activists out of the lot of them.
Hilarious.
March 15, 2005
NOOKIE
The Sun yesterday ran a story claiming that a 16 stone arthritic woman was writing love letters to Abu Hamza inside Belmarsh. Now I'm not sure if I am just a crap researcher but I swear the guys told me that Hamza wasn't allowed correspondence. This being Malung-TV-News crap reasearch is a distinct posibility.
In related news our local village mayor went on the BBC claiming that London was more at risk from bird flu than Al Qaida
"My big worry about the legislation, though, is you rely on the advice of the security services. My experience of MI5 is that they are so often wrong".
In related news our local village mayor went on the BBC claiming that London was more at risk from bird flu than Al Qaida
"My big worry about the legislation, though, is you rely on the advice of the security services. My experience of MI5 is that they are so often wrong".
January 29, 2005
GUANTANAMO
So, four more released without charge after a day or so's questioning. I hope I get to speak to them. I wonder what they will add to Mr. Gurdul's story?
It's interesting to see the news coverage. The Sun obviously see's this as a blow against the war on terror, The Independent and suchlike are seeing it as a victory for human rights.
The Sun want the guys to be terrorists. The Independent and people like myself want them to be innocent and everyone writes accordingly. I wonder how their own story will break.
ps. Just had a butchers at the Quality Control Alliance blog. They point to an interesting story about the Aussie's ex-Guantanamo guest.
It's interesting to see the news coverage. The Sun obviously see's this as a blow against the war on terror, The Independent and suchlike are seeing it as a victory for human rights.
The Sun want the guys to be terrorists. The Independent and people like myself want them to be innocent and everyone writes accordingly. I wonder how their own story will break.
ps. Just had a butchers at the Quality Control Alliance blog. They point to an interesting story about the Aussie's ex-Guantanamo guest.
May 14, 2004
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.
" 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.
ISLAMISM IN THE UK
And what of Abu Hamza? We haven't seen anyone so vilified since Johnny Rotten. I still had no idea who the fuck he was. I just had the feeling that if he was who the Sun said he was, someone more sinister than Mr. Abdullah would be standing next to him. The masked men looked sinister enough on TV, but just seemed like fashion victims close up.
What if Hamza was a terrorist? Britain had negotiated with terrorists before; loads of them had come in from out of the cold and were sitting in Parliament in Northern Ireland. Last time we were at risk from terrorism even a Tory like John Major was negotiating behind the scenes. The situation seemed ludicrous. The governments of Britain and America make allegations outside of court and journalists come to local little Finsbury Park to put them to the Finsbury Park debating society on the pavement.
For a long while I couldn't take anyone seriously. Did he have any connection to anyone who was threatening the UK? Could he be considered a serious spokesman? It didn't seem so at first from close up. It seemed like most of the Finsbury Park guys, he just liked the attention. It made him feel important.
Although I didn't see this government as being serious, about terrorism or about the safety of London, I wondered would Abu Hamza be the sort of person a serious government could negotiate with? Considering how he had been portrayed in the media I knew no one would think so. In some ways he was ridiculed, in others it was implied that he was dangerous. Yet he was one of the only people in the west who stood up and said
" Yes I am a Fundamental Islamist".
And as such all the woes and ills of this international argument had a lone sounding board, with every journalist who thought they had repute queuing up to talk to him. It takes a resilient character to be that sounding board week in, week out, yet Hamza, being Hamza was well up for it. From first impressions I found someone who seemed not to care less what people thought of him but as the weeks went on things started to change.
After my initial approaches I didn't really want to talk to him so much. I was happy just documenting. It was no doubt true that he had considerably revised what he was saying, and the manner in which he said it outside the mosque from what he had said inside. As the weeks went on, and the west's secular journalists were here pitting themselves against the west's only representative of Fundamental Islam it seemed to me that we were actually getting somewhere. From the perspective of peace, it seemed good for both sides of this very serious argument that at least some debate was occurring. It certainly seemed good for Hamza.
The constant justification of his words to non-believers seemed, surprisingly to be turning him into a serious representative of Fundamental Islam, whatever he had previously said. After a few weeks he sat down, the ego softened. For a year now I have watched him say continually that the European people should not be a target, because the majority of them were in the same boat, being anti-war and powerless to do anything about it. I wondered what Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams used to say and do, and how they had trod the road to political respectability- whatever that meant. Could the same road be traveled by Abu Hamza? Looking at the press the idea seemed totally ludicrous. Muslim representatives in the press said he was a nothing. They hated him getting so much attention and said he just gave them a bad name. Yet the BBC, ITV and all the worlds’ media took him seriously enough. Some Islamists on the Internet even said that Hamza was doing such a good job focusing media attention on the ills of Islamists that he must be working for MI-5 himself.
Again I wondered to myself where else on the face of the planet this would be occurring. Elsewhere in the UK I could imagine Islamists in separate groups speaking of their hatred of George Bush, and secular middle class British people wondering when we were going to sling out captain hook. Here at the border of free speech the two sides met under the supervision of the Police. It takes a unique country for this sort of debate to be tolerated in and as such, with the only other choice for this country being to have a faceless, wordless threat I was pleased Hamza was still around, and pleased to be in "Londonistan".
As the weeks went on the scuffles in the media scrum died down. Everyone had their role they felt they should play. As people got used to me being around, I still had the same problem with the same people who felt that it was their job to obstruct my camera, and still had the same friendly debates with some of the brighter and younger of Finsbury Parks Muslim community. Hamza seemed to have done nothing for which the Police wanted to charge him. I wondered what wrong he had done? Maybe The Sun had him all wrong and he was actually just one of those great British eccentrics. I had no way of telling, but I was really pleased that I had this unique document of the reality of British freedom of speech in my camera and totally bemused that I was, for the first time in many long years, now proud of being British.
What if Hamza was a terrorist? Britain had negotiated with terrorists before; loads of them had come in from out of the cold and were sitting in Parliament in Northern Ireland. Last time we were at risk from terrorism even a Tory like John Major was negotiating behind the scenes. The situation seemed ludicrous. The governments of Britain and America make allegations outside of court and journalists come to local little Finsbury Park to put them to the Finsbury Park debating society on the pavement.
For a long while I couldn't take anyone seriously. Did he have any connection to anyone who was threatening the UK? Could he be considered a serious spokesman? It didn't seem so at first from close up. It seemed like most of the Finsbury Park guys, he just liked the attention. It made him feel important.
Although I didn't see this government as being serious, about terrorism or about the safety of London, I wondered would Abu Hamza be the sort of person a serious government could negotiate with? Considering how he had been portrayed in the media I knew no one would think so. In some ways he was ridiculed, in others it was implied that he was dangerous. Yet he was one of the only people in the west who stood up and said
" Yes I am a Fundamental Islamist".
And as such all the woes and ills of this international argument had a lone sounding board, with every journalist who thought they had repute queuing up to talk to him. It takes a resilient character to be that sounding board week in, week out, yet Hamza, being Hamza was well up for it. From first impressions I found someone who seemed not to care less what people thought of him but as the weeks went on things started to change.
After my initial approaches I didn't really want to talk to him so much. I was happy just documenting. It was no doubt true that he had considerably revised what he was saying, and the manner in which he said it outside the mosque from what he had said inside. As the weeks went on, and the west's secular journalists were here pitting themselves against the west's only representative of Fundamental Islam it seemed to me that we were actually getting somewhere. From the perspective of peace, it seemed good for both sides of this very serious argument that at least some debate was occurring. It certainly seemed good for Hamza.
The constant justification of his words to non-believers seemed, surprisingly to be turning him into a serious representative of Fundamental Islam, whatever he had previously said. After a few weeks he sat down, the ego softened. For a year now I have watched him say continually that the European people should not be a target, because the majority of them were in the same boat, being anti-war and powerless to do anything about it. I wondered what Martin McGuiness and Gerry Adams used to say and do, and how they had trod the road to political respectability- whatever that meant. Could the same road be traveled by Abu Hamza? Looking at the press the idea seemed totally ludicrous. Muslim representatives in the press said he was a nothing. They hated him getting so much attention and said he just gave them a bad name. Yet the BBC, ITV and all the worlds’ media took him seriously enough. Some Islamists on the Internet even said that Hamza was doing such a good job focusing media attention on the ills of Islamists that he must be working for MI-5 himself.
Again I wondered to myself where else on the face of the planet this would be occurring. Elsewhere in the UK I could imagine Islamists in separate groups speaking of their hatred of George Bush, and secular middle class British people wondering when we were going to sling out captain hook. Here at the border of free speech the two sides met under the supervision of the Police. It takes a unique country for this sort of debate to be tolerated in and as such, with the only other choice for this country being to have a faceless, wordless threat I was pleased Hamza was still around, and pleased to be in "Londonistan".
As the weeks went on the scuffles in the media scrum died down. Everyone had their role they felt they should play. As people got used to me being around, I still had the same problem with the same people who felt that it was their job to obstruct my camera, and still had the same friendly debates with some of the brighter and younger of Finsbury Parks Muslim community. Hamza seemed to have done nothing for which the Police wanted to charge him. I wondered what wrong he had done? Maybe The Sun had him all wrong and he was actually just one of those great British eccentrics. I had no way of telling, but I was really pleased that I had this unique document of the reality of British freedom of speech in my camera and totally bemused that I was, for the first time in many long years, now proud of being British.
PITCHING AND BITCHING
When I first started filming in Finsbury Park, I had no serious intention of approaching TV companies with my story. I was just having fun. I suspected the media to be totally controlled. As I found out for myself that it didn't seem to be, the idea of approaching production companies became more serious. The most encouragement I got from the scene was from a newspaper journalist, who I sometimes caged ciggies off of, and who gave me a contact for documentary making. I asked him why he never asked Hamza questions one time, to be told that he was
“ Out of favour with the Muslim brothers. “
He was such a nice guy I thought about asking them to reconsider. I finally got round to asking him who he wrote for.
“ The Sun and The Express “ he told me.
With that statement the whole ludicrous nature of what I had become involved with seemed to spin full circle. One of the original reasons I had come down was because of The Suns coverage of this mosque, and the journalist I had received the most encouragement from wrote for them. Even though I had been at times flippant, I believed I had the other side of what the right wing press, and the London TV News had deemed to be one of the most important stories in the UK.
I joined a filmmakers website called shootingpeople and began answering production company calls for new documentary makers. My film about the kids protest had been well received by those who were in it, but totally mulched by a couple of serious film maker friends, some of whom actually seemed to be telling me off for making such a low quality film. Although I suspected this was out of frustration with their own lack of success I still became loath to show what I had to strangers.
I met was a guy who actually helped run the shooting people web site. He was great, we shared an interest in meditation and he lent me a book by a Canadian guy who worked on monster movies called Hardcore Zen. He wished me all the best. I think he would have loved to produce something involving a few peoples footage, and had his eyes on making the British Bowling for Columbine.
A couple of months later I answered a call from a Swedish production company working in the U.K. They thought the stuff I had amusing, but I rambled nonsensical stuff about how I wanted to make it really off the wall, and how I wanted to be painted red head to toe if I was going to present it. I watched some of the stuff they had made. Although it was socially conscious, it was a bit A B C in presentation, and they seemed a bit straight for what I was after, with no idea of Hamza's status in British society. They all looked down as I shook their hands when I left and I didn't hear from them again.
A company called Idealworld had put a call out. I phoned them, but stuttered so much I thought I had completely fucked my chances. After phoning back a couple of times to find them in meetings, I gave up, feeling sorry for myself. I wondered why I had dedicated so much time to all this.
I thought of what I would like to have in my documentary if money was no object. I wanted to include an interview with David Icke, and possibly a phone conversation with the guy who runs infowars where the allegation of George Bush worshiping an Owl God was actually made. I wanted to blue screen an image of George Bush on his lawn in front of his helicopter with me running into frame and falling over, hounding him with questions about his alleged owl god worship and child sacrifice.
In my Internet research I had come up with the name Yvonne Ridley. She was a journalist who had been captured in Afghanistan by the Taliban. She had been set free, without harm, speaking of having been well treated by her captors. She had later actually converted to Islam. I read in some of her writing that she had met Abu Hamza. They had both been guests at a student debating society. I thought what she would have to say might bridge the gap of understanding between Islam and the west.
I went to a small demo marking one year since the invasion of Iraq. I saw George Galloway but although I had my camera I still didn't ask him about his indefatigable comments. As I went round filming I bumped into a friend I had made who makes a living animating in 3D. He was standing next to Naz, a rapper from the band Fundamental who looks like a younger version of Bin Laden. He had grown up a Muslim in the north of England, had lapsed into western society and was now reclaiming his Muslim faith. I had earlier put him in my film about the kids and he was really complimentary about it. We were joined by an older woman who he introduced as Yvonne. She had a sharp sense of humour and the two of them obviously knew each other well and had a banter going.
" You know who this is? " said Naz.
" Yvonne Ridley! She was taken prisoner by the Taliban!"
" You don't know how long I have been wanting to talk to you. " I told her about my filming in Finsbury Park and switched my camera on hoping she would have something to say.
I had previously spoken to Naz about my frustrations getting Muslims to talk on camera about Fundamental Islam or Abu Hamza. I instantly had the same trouble with Yvonne, as she didn't like to be in front of a camera either.
I filmed Naz saying something like "The Taliban had to let her go because she was too much of an extremist for them."
She said that according to her religion, it was wrong to criticize fellow Muslims. I told her of my dislike for the seemingly power crazed lunatics who ran the stop the war movement and how I had no problem criticizing them. It was decided that we would go for a coffee, but I lost them all trying to film the stage through the spray of Trafalgar Squares fountains. I later heard from my friend that she had said of me
"I don't want to talk to that stone worshiper.“
Fair enough I suppose. I thought she would have something more useful to say than that though. It was interesting that only 3 of the Muslims I had met in Finsbury Park judged me by the way I looked, and yet a recent convert like Yvonne would be on my case so soon.
After about a month I got another call from Idealworld. The researcher who had originally contacted me left a message saying that a new documentary producer was on the scene, and they were eager to see what I had. The night before I was really nervous. A years work on the line, to be judged by the people who made Location, Location, Location seemed to be even more ludicrous than Finsbury Park. The meeting was good. They had got back to me because they had been reading the right wing press and realised how big a story I was on to. After a year standing in the cold with Islamists it was great to be sitting in front of a producer who was in a position to make this into a documentary who really wanted to do it.
We spoke of the politics surrounding the situation. With the predicted expansion of Muslim communities in Europe I wondered whether someone with Hamza’s views might one day be standing for mayor of Dusseldorf or something. They liked my approach, and wanted to see the human side of Mr Abdullah. I was relieved that they preferred to make a film about him rather than Hamza. They were totally up for it, but had to get a commission from Channel 4, and I have to get the agreement of Mr. Abdullah.
“ Out of favour with the Muslim brothers. “
He was such a nice guy I thought about asking them to reconsider. I finally got round to asking him who he wrote for.
“ The Sun and The Express “ he told me.
With that statement the whole ludicrous nature of what I had become involved with seemed to spin full circle. One of the original reasons I had come down was because of The Suns coverage of this mosque, and the journalist I had received the most encouragement from wrote for them. Even though I had been at times flippant, I believed I had the other side of what the right wing press, and the London TV News had deemed to be one of the most important stories in the UK.
I joined a filmmakers website called shootingpeople and began answering production company calls for new documentary makers. My film about the kids protest had been well received by those who were in it, but totally mulched by a couple of serious film maker friends, some of whom actually seemed to be telling me off for making such a low quality film. Although I suspected this was out of frustration with their own lack of success I still became loath to show what I had to strangers.
I met was a guy who actually helped run the shooting people web site. He was great, we shared an interest in meditation and he lent me a book by a Canadian guy who worked on monster movies called Hardcore Zen. He wished me all the best. I think he would have loved to produce something involving a few peoples footage, and had his eyes on making the British Bowling for Columbine.
A couple of months later I answered a call from a Swedish production company working in the U.K. They thought the stuff I had amusing, but I rambled nonsensical stuff about how I wanted to make it really off the wall, and how I wanted to be painted red head to toe if I was going to present it. I watched some of the stuff they had made. Although it was socially conscious, it was a bit A B C in presentation, and they seemed a bit straight for what I was after, with no idea of Hamza's status in British society. They all looked down as I shook their hands when I left and I didn't hear from them again.
A company called Idealworld had put a call out. I phoned them, but stuttered so much I thought I had completely fucked my chances. After phoning back a couple of times to find them in meetings, I gave up, feeling sorry for myself. I wondered why I had dedicated so much time to all this.
I thought of what I would like to have in my documentary if money was no object. I wanted to include an interview with David Icke, and possibly a phone conversation with the guy who runs infowars where the allegation of George Bush worshiping an Owl God was actually made. I wanted to blue screen an image of George Bush on his lawn in front of his helicopter with me running into frame and falling over, hounding him with questions about his alleged owl god worship and child sacrifice.
In my Internet research I had come up with the name Yvonne Ridley. She was a journalist who had been captured in Afghanistan by the Taliban. She had been set free, without harm, speaking of having been well treated by her captors. She had later actually converted to Islam. I read in some of her writing that she had met Abu Hamza. They had both been guests at a student debating society. I thought what she would have to say might bridge the gap of understanding between Islam and the west.
I went to a small demo marking one year since the invasion of Iraq. I saw George Galloway but although I had my camera I still didn't ask him about his indefatigable comments. As I went round filming I bumped into a friend I had made who makes a living animating in 3D. He was standing next to Naz, a rapper from the band Fundamental who looks like a younger version of Bin Laden. He had grown up a Muslim in the north of England, had lapsed into western society and was now reclaiming his Muslim faith. I had earlier put him in my film about the kids and he was really complimentary about it. We were joined by an older woman who he introduced as Yvonne. She had a sharp sense of humour and the two of them obviously knew each other well and had a banter going.
" You know who this is? " said Naz.
" Yvonne Ridley! She was taken prisoner by the Taliban!"
" You don't know how long I have been wanting to talk to you. " I told her about my filming in Finsbury Park and switched my camera on hoping she would have something to say.
I had previously spoken to Naz about my frustrations getting Muslims to talk on camera about Fundamental Islam or Abu Hamza. I instantly had the same trouble with Yvonne, as she didn't like to be in front of a camera either.
I filmed Naz saying something like "The Taliban had to let her go because she was too much of an extremist for them."
She said that according to her religion, it was wrong to criticize fellow Muslims. I told her of my dislike for the seemingly power crazed lunatics who ran the stop the war movement and how I had no problem criticizing them. It was decided that we would go for a coffee, but I lost them all trying to film the stage through the spray of Trafalgar Squares fountains. I later heard from my friend that she had said of me
"I don't want to talk to that stone worshiper.“
Fair enough I suppose. I thought she would have something more useful to say than that though. It was interesting that only 3 of the Muslims I had met in Finsbury Park judged me by the way I looked, and yet a recent convert like Yvonne would be on my case so soon.
After about a month I got another call from Idealworld. The researcher who had originally contacted me left a message saying that a new documentary producer was on the scene, and they were eager to see what I had. The night before I was really nervous. A years work on the line, to be judged by the people who made Location, Location, Location seemed to be even more ludicrous than Finsbury Park. The meeting was good. They had got back to me because they had been reading the right wing press and realised how big a story I was on to. After a year standing in the cold with Islamists it was great to be sitting in front of a producer who was in a position to make this into a documentary who really wanted to do it.
We spoke of the politics surrounding the situation. With the predicted expansion of Muslim communities in Europe I wondered whether someone with Hamza’s views might one day be standing for mayor of Dusseldorf or something. They liked my approach, and wanted to see the human side of Mr Abdullah. I was relieved that they preferred to make a film about him rather than Hamza. They were totally up for it, but had to get a commission from Channel 4, and I have to get the agreement of Mr. Abdullah.
GOD
In a years gonzo style film making I have always kept to the rule that I only disturbed Mr. Hamza, Abdullah, Hajj and friends when there were already camera’s about. I had no desire to join in the kangaroo court, I never felt very marsupial like. In a week when it was quiet Mr. Abdullah came up to me. He and Hajj asked me if what I had heard had any effect on me, meaning was I wavering towards becoming a Muslim. I said that I didn’t really want to discuss whether I thought there was a god or not in their mosque, and we made a tentative agreement to discuss this all with a camera in a café. The next week Muslims were arrested in Britain, allegedly with half a ton of fertiliser in a lock up.
To make any document of this mosque I’ve found it interesting to examine my own concept of god, and to be as honest as possible about it, especially to Mr. Abdullah. I suppose I have always been filming with the hope of a solution in mind. Being loosely attached to various groups who believe in social change, I’ve always felt more inclined to film in Finsbury Park, where the rights and wrongs are less clear to me than make any dogmatic film about how much better “we” are than “them". I don’t hate George Bush, I just feel sorry for him. I come from a loose group of people who believe there is going to be a global shift in consciousness, rather than any political or religious solution. I went to Finsbury Park to test the reality such a utopic view is up against. It worries me as a secular, spiritual person that there are so many Americans and so many Muslims locking us all into an Armageddon theory.
Being so close to the situation at Finsbury Park I wonder sometimes what sort of reception a TV documentary about Mr. Abdullah would get. I gave the same short I made for Idealworld to a lot of the younger guys at Finsbury Park to see what they made of it. I also gave it to Mr. Abdullah. The advantage of documentary making is that I can let the audience make the judgment. The safety of London is at stake. Its certainly been a bizarre journey. Why I do it I have still to work out. Maybe I should ask Abu Hamza.
Do I believe in God? I don't actually believe in belief. There either is one or there isn't one, and whatever I believe wont change that fact. I'm just trying to stay off cannabis and meditate.
Pro-Finsbury Park mosque:
http://www.supportersofshariah.org
Anti-Finsbury Park mosque
http://www.geocities.com/johnathanrgalt/SupportersOfShariah_com.html
To make any document of this mosque I’ve found it interesting to examine my own concept of god, and to be as honest as possible about it, especially to Mr. Abdullah. I suppose I have always been filming with the hope of a solution in mind. Being loosely attached to various groups who believe in social change, I’ve always felt more inclined to film in Finsbury Park, where the rights and wrongs are less clear to me than make any dogmatic film about how much better “we” are than “them". I don’t hate George Bush, I just feel sorry for him. I come from a loose group of people who believe there is going to be a global shift in consciousness, rather than any political or religious solution. I went to Finsbury Park to test the reality such a utopic view is up against. It worries me as a secular, spiritual person that there are so many Americans and so many Muslims locking us all into an Armageddon theory.
Being so close to the situation at Finsbury Park I wonder sometimes what sort of reception a TV documentary about Mr. Abdullah would get. I gave the same short I made for Idealworld to a lot of the younger guys at Finsbury Park to see what they made of it. I also gave it to Mr. Abdullah. The advantage of documentary making is that I can let the audience make the judgment. The safety of London is at stake. Its certainly been a bizarre journey. Why I do it I have still to work out. Maybe I should ask Abu Hamza.
Do I believe in God? I don't actually believe in belief. There either is one or there isn't one, and whatever I believe wont change that fact. I'm just trying to stay off cannabis and meditate.
Pro-Finsbury Park mosque:
http://www.supportersofshariah.org
Anti-Finsbury Park mosque
http://www.geocities.com/johnathanrgalt/SupportersOfShariah_com.html
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