— One month ago today,
a van driven by a white British man plowed into a crowd of Muslim worshippers
near Finsbury Park Mosque in Central London,
killing one and injuring 10.
That mosque was once known for extremist sermons
by notorious hate preacher Abu Hamza,
but it’s since become a force for moderation in the Muslim community,
and a model of deradicalization in the U.K.
And now, its members have become victims of terror themselves.
Hind Hassan reports.
— Between 1997 and 2004,
Egyptian cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri preached extremism and fundamentalist Islam
at Finsbury Park Mosque:
— Many people have been attacking me in the newspapers.
Everybody knows I have the right to sue them,
I have the right to take them to court for a lot of lies.
— In response, police closed the mosque down,
so Hamza took his sermons to the street outside.
Among those attending was Richard Reid,
a terrorist who tried and failed to bring down an American Airlines jet with a bomb in his shoe.
For teenage worshippers like Ismail Einashe, the sermons were frightening:
— Attending the mosque was an experience based on fear,
because we were held hostage effectively to Abu Hamza.
He would usually go into very long sermons
about the difference between us Muslims and the non-Muslims,
he would preach a message of hate and separation
and I found that very frightening as a teenager, actually.
— Hamza’s time at the mosque ended in 2004,
when he was slung in jail and eventually extradited to the U.S.
He’s now serving life in prison there for terror offenses.
A year later, the mosque was reopened,
having been taken over by a community trust with new management,
including Mohammed Kozbar.
He says the steps to deradicalizing were simple:
Get rid of Abu Hamza’s remaining followers,
then make sure no one could deliver a sermon without being vetted first.
— We kicked Abu Hamza’s supporters out of the mosque
and we took over here at the mosque
and we changed it from a hostile to a cohesive atmosphere.
And now, as you can see, it is not only a mosque,
it is a community center which is open for everybody.
When you engage with the community in a positive way,
they can make a huge difference.
And this mosque proved that.
— If you were to be made aware of somebody who was coming to this mosque that was perhaps
saying things that are considered extreme, or is potentially vulnerable to radicalization,
what would you do about it?
— Well, first of all, our roles and policies
won’t allow anyone to come and speak just like this.
We invite speakers which we know that they are—
we can trust them and we can trust what they are saying.
Nobody whatsoever is allowed to come and just preach and give a speech to the congregation.
— The lingering image of Finsbury Park mosque as an incubator for terror
has been hard to leave behind.
That doesn’t sit well with many Muslims here,
who feel this attack on their community has been framed differently
to other terror strikes in the U.K.,
which were carried out by Muslims.
— Just take this incident that’s just happened,
some media elements, I’m not saying your media elements,
they have tried to link this with the Finsbury mosque,
Abu Hamza,
and say it’s because this mosque has links to people who are extremists,
that’s why it’s happened.
So they’re trying to condone what has happened, which is unacceptable.
— The steps Finsbury Park Mosque took to deradicalize 12 years ago are still working.
Yet as the mosque tries to emerge from the shadow of it’s past,
it is now vulnerable to a different kind of extremist threat:
— “The attack using the van…”
— “…the van was only the beginning.”
— “The fun will continue this August.”
“There will be rivers of blood flowing down the streets,”
“I will make sure of this.”
“None of you vermin will survive.”
“I mean, who would survive being gassed or blown up?”
Have you been getting more hate mail?
Has that increased?
— It is definitely increasing.
There’s still many to come, but we don’t know what is there.
— They’re very specific as well: “The fun will continue this August…”
— “…there will be rivers of blood.” — Yes.
— This one is serious.
— This letter has since been reported to the police,
but it isn’t the only hate mail the mosque has received.
They say they want the government to take greater action and protect their community.