Preaching hatred
By Diana West
January 27, 2006

Abu Hamza al-Masri, the hook-handed former imam of the notorious Finsbury Park mosque -- spiritual home to "shoe bomber" Richard Reid and "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui -- is on trial this month at the Old Bailey. Charges include nine counts of soliciting to murder, four counts of stirring up racial hatred, and two counts of possession of material related to the other charges, including the 10-volume Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad -- a terrorism how-to guide now immortalized in London tabloidese as "Hook's 'Bomb Big Ben' Book."

Jurors in the London case will be listening very carefully to nine audio and video recordings of sermons by Abu Hamza seized by police from the mosque, which, not at all incidentally, has also yielded a trove of weapons, hundreds of suspected forged or stolen passports, even a few hazmat suits. Also seized was a box rather helpfully labeled "jihad." The rest