BNP protests at mosque as radicals mark date

A gathering of radical Islamic groups at a London mosque to mark 11 September led to protests by the British National Party last night.

The conference, entitled "September 11: A Towering Day in History" at the Finsbury Park mosque was described as a discussion evening on US foreign policy and the threatened war against Iraq.

The mosque's hardline leader Abu Hamza al-Masri addressed 150 people while about 100 BNP supporters demonstrated outside, attracting a smaller counter-demonstration by the Anti-Nazi League. The two groups were kept apart by a heavy police presence outside the entrance to the mosque.

Mr Abu Hamza entered the mosque with male supporters, their faces hidden by scarves. He said: "This is not a day of rejoicing, it is a day of thinking and rethinking.

"I know there have been reports of celebratory Muslims but this is not for us a day of celebration."

Another hardline imam, Sheikh Omar Bakri, said of al-Qa'ida: "We share the same divine beliefs but we do not share the structure or methods that they use." But he added: "Islam says fight those who fight you.''

Of Osama bin Laden, he said: "Nobody loves him but the believers and nobody hates him but the hypocrites.''

Earlier a few miles across the city at Regent's Park mosque a service was held to remember the victims of 11 September, including many Muslims. Women in burqas and headscarves listened while Sarah Joseph recited a prayer for her friend Sarah Ali, who had gone to the World Trade Centre for a business meeting, never to return.

Ms Joseph, 31, a lecturer on Islam who lives in Wembley, north London, said: "She was an ordinary, hard-working girl from a tight-knit Muslim community in London and she had just got married.

"Right now, Muslims are feeling exactly what the rest of the world is feeling in its grief. We lost loved ones too ­ there was a prayer room in the twin towers where 1,500 Muslims went to worship.''

The mood of reconciliation was underscored by Imam Hamdy Hashim, whose reading from the Koran spoke of the significance of peace and understanding between nations.

Also speaking to the mixed congregation was Joe Ahmed-Dobson, a Muslim convert and son of the Labour MP Frank Dobson. He said: "The world is well aware that those who carried out the attacks appa-rently attribute their actions to Islam itself. This attribution was and continues to be grossly offensive to the overwhelming majority of the UK's three million Muslims.''