The Times (UK) (and home of an excessively annoying registration system) stuns with Shuttle destroyed by God, says Abu Hamza:
There were renewed calls for the deportation of Abu Hamza al-Masri yesterday after he said that Allah had destroyed the shuttle because it was a "trinity of evil" against Islam.When last we caught up with ole Abu, he had received £100,000 in welfare benefits over the last 3 years and was under investigation for the bigamous marriage that got him UK citizenship:
The militant cleric said that God had destroyed the Columbia because it was carrying American Christians, an Indian-born Hindu and an Israeli Jew. He added that the craft’s explosion was a message from God because the first Israeli in space, Ilan Ramon, a former fighter pilot, was killed over an area of Texas called Palestine.
The former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in North London came under fierce criticism from politicians and leading Muslims. They accused him of inciting racial and religious hatred and revelling in the deaths of innocent people.
Mr Hamza, 44, said: "The Muslim people see these pilots as criminals. By going into space they would have sharpened the accuracy of their bombs through satellites. These missions would increase the number of satellites for military purposes. It would increase the slavery of governance of other countries by America. It is a punishment from God. Muslims see it that way. It is a trinity of evil because it carried Americans, an Israeli and a Hindu, a trinity of evil against Islam."
The Muslim Council of Great Britain said: "The vast majority of Muslims are now quite disgusted by (Mr Hamza’s) sentiments."
The Home Office has been unwilling to extradite him to Yemen, however, as there are fears that he would not be given a fair trial. Nor has the Government been able to deport him to Egypt, as he has been a British citizen since his marriage, in May 1980, to an Englishwoman. Last night that impasse appeared to have been broken, when it was discovered that the marriage was bigamous, and therefore void.I'm sure he'll be comfy back in the old country. What's holding up the parade? (And Yemen would be good too.)
