February 5, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 3,1423

LONDON, Feb 4: Radical preacher Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri has been removed from his position at the Finsbury Park mosque in London, Britain’s Charity Commission said on Tuesday.

Hamza, an Egyptian-born who supported the Taliban, was accused of abusing his position to make inflammatory sermons against the West.

The Charity Commission, which oversees places of worship in Britain dependent on charitable donations, said in a statement that Hamza had used his position “to make inappropriate political statements”.

The Finsbury Park mosque, accused by critics of having links with the Al Qaeda network, was the scene last month of a major raid by police, when seven men were arrested, and fake passports and credit cards were seized.

Scotland Yard said officers also discovered a stun gun, an imitation weapon which fires blanks and a CS gas canister during a search.

The mosque was temporarily closed after the raid, which was unrelated to the Charity Commission’s investigation, but Hamza defiantly continued to preach in the street outside.

Hamza, a controversial figure with a patch over one eye and a hook on one arm, said on Monday that the loss of the US space shuttle Columbia was nothing less than “a punishment from God”.

He called the Columbia “a trinity of evil against Islam” because it had Americans, an Israeli and a Hindu on board.

A former Israeli fighter pilot and an Indian-born naturalized American were among the shuttle’s seven astronauts killed in the disaster.

Hamza was suspended by the Charity Commission in April last year.

But he continued to flout rules governing charities which outlaw political activity. The North London Central Mosque Trust, which runs the Finsbury Park Mosque, is a registered charity.

The commission said it took the decision to remove the preacher in order to protect the mosque and its future administration.—AFP