How I met the sheikh waging a holy war on the world

STRICTLY speaking, we should not have been there. Two Muslims in a licensed premises. But Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Misry, or Hamza as he introduced himself, set the venue for this meeting, the Hilton Hotel in Shepherd's Bush, west London. As a compromise, we sat on a couch in the lobby which seemed to be the farthest from the "Bar 'n' Grill".

A young Arab boy, aged perhaps 11 or 12, clutching a mobile phone, accompanied us. He took up a position on the opposite side of the lobby and stared at me throughout the meeting.

Hamza is a hulk of a man, well over 6ft tall, his massive frame exaggerated by his flowing salwar kameez. When I greeted him he proffered a scarred stump to shake. His left arm was also sheared above the elbow. The disability appears to be his badge, an article of faith in his war against the kaffirs (non-Muslims); it is his testament to time spent with the mujahedin in Afghanistan after the war with the Soviet Union; he told me he was clearing Soviet mines when the accident happened. It also accounts for why only one of his eyes was fixing me as his litany poured out; the other is a milky imitation surrounded by scar tissue.

Despite these rather grotesque features, which may have explained why the name-tagged sales reps from a conference gave us a wide berth on their way to the bar, Hamza was genial enough. He spoke quickly and softly, starting as he clearly meant to go on: "The western media are all liars, you know."

No doubt he would have plenty to say about the media this weekend: Hamza has been named as the alleged co-ordinator of a terrorist cell intent on bombing targets in Yemen. The group with which he is said to be linked is sworn to overthrow the Yemeni government, and five Britons held in Aden were charged on Friday with planning "murder, explosions and destruction". Scotland Yard detectives are said to be examining statements made by Hamza linking him to the men.

Our meeting, last October, had taken some time to fix up. Before he came under the glare of publicity last week, as his links to the alleged Yemeni hostage-takers emerged, Hamza had been restricted to spreading his calls for an Islamic state in Britain to pamphlets, a website, and e-mailing statements to Arabic and foreign news agencies.

It was one of these leaflets that I found at the Islamic Cultural Centre at the Central Mosque, Regent's Park, London, when I was investigating reports of visits to Britain by Taliban recruitment officers. "Supporters of Shariah", the umbrella group of shadowy extremist Islamic cells calling for holy war, co-ordinated by Hamza, seemed to offer a tangible link to the Taliban.

Hamza told me that he might be able to help, but we must meet under strict conditions: no tape recorders, notes must be made afterwards. After many mobile-phone calls he agreed - but only because I have converted (or "reverted" to use the Islamic term) to Islam, because of marriage.

It was an ice-breaker, no more than that, and allowed Hamza's initial suspicions to be replaced with enthusiasm ... "How are you getting on with the prayers? Do you want to borrow a tape? Have you read the Holy Koran yet? What name have you chosen?" I explained why I had chosen Zakariah Al-Haqq - Al Haqq, one of Allah's 99 names, is Arabic for "the Truth" - but he grumbled that it sounded too Pakistani, then launched into a diatribe against Pakistan for being slow in implementing a Taliban-style state.

Warming to his subject matter, he got on to his favourite topic: jihad - holy war - against the West, until the United Nations and Nato withdraw from Muslim affairs.

When will that be? When would jihad stop?

"When everyone is Muslim," was the reply.

This polarised argument is familiar territory. The last time I came across such vehemence was in Bradford after the 1995 riots, when the Egyptian- linked terror group Hizb-ut-Tehrir were discovered stirring up the disaffected young Asian Muslims in the vacuum following the disturbance.

Fundamentally there is no argument with the received word of God in the Koran or the teachings of his prophet Mohammed, according to Hamza, so why is the West obsessed with money, greed and cultural imperialism, he asks.

It is a persuasive argument, but behind this reason is a darker agenda - set in stark relief following the killing of the four tourists in Yemen. I challenged his views, outlined in a Supporters of Shariah leaflet, concerning the use of hostages as a "human shield". His reply was a chilling foretaste of what his contacts in Yemen would stand accused of carrying out. "Generally, the killing of civilians is not allowed in Islam," he said. "But in certain conditions it is allowable, such as if they are being used as a shield against Islam, or jihad, or even the mujahedin, then in that case, even if they are Muslims, the war must still go on."

Indeed, Hamza condoned terrorist acts in general, saying it was obligatory for every Muslim to rise up against non-Muslims. He said his views were justified because of US aggression, most notably the bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan last year.

He called that action "haram [forbidden] terrorism": "It is terrorism used for nations to be superior over one another for non-godly reasons, for example, in the name of racism, nationality, tribalism and pride, to impose non-godly man-made laws which bring about inequity and nudity. The United Nations and all the secularist polytheists are using this kind of unlawful terrorism against the people."

Hamza, who worked as a civil engineer before taking up preaching and activism at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, sees no way forward other than violent action, and his contacts are clearly extensive, spreading throughout Yemen, Egypt, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Although there was no let-up in his rhetoric, he conceded that, while money was raised in the UK for furthering the cause abroad, no acts of violence were planned for mainland Britain.

The mobile phone rang and Hamza's helper held the receiver to his ear. The meeting was now over, and as we parted, with him saying he expected to be followed home by Special Branch, he handed me a leaflet: "Write Your Islamic Will - Easy Example Provided."