'Shut Mosques' Call at UK Rally

10/04/2004| IslamWeb

Some 50 members of the extreme-right National Front party shouted anti-Islam slogans and burned a picture of Osama bin Laden in a London protest calling for all mosques in Britain to be shut down. The demonstration took place outside the mosque of Abu Hamza Al Masri, closed down by police in January 2003. Al Masri and some 200 worshipers were praying on the ground outside the mosque as the protest took place, and a large police contingent stood by in the north London district of Finsbury Park. The protest came a week after some worshipers burned a British flag after Friday prayers in front of the British capital's main mosque in Regent's Park. An official body said last year that Al Masri used his mosque to preach extremist views. Al Masri, who became a British citizen through marriage in 1981, used the mosque for "personal and political, rather than charitable, purposes", the Charity Commission said in a report. Britain's National Front has only a tiny following, has no representatives in national parliament and only a handful in local councils across the country. There was no violence and there were no arrests, London's Metropolitan Police said. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A National Front protestor is removed by police during a demonstration outside Finsbury Park station, London, which began at North London Central Mosque, April 9, 2004. (REUTERS/Matt Dunham)