Radical cleric praises bin Laden

Abu Usamah, 42, has been accused of preaching inflammatory anti-Western sermons at the Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham, close to the homes of several suspects arrested last week.

Usamah, an American convert to Islam, has told worshippers Osama Bin Laden is "better than a million George Bushes and a thousand Tony Blairs" and that non-Muslims are "pathological liars".

In another sermon he said Christians and Jews were "kuffaars" (non-believers) and the enemies of Islam. "

No one loves the kuffaar, not a single person loves the kuffaar. We hate the kuffaar," he said.

Usamah - who also claims women have "deficient" intellects and that gays should be "thrown from a mountain" - preaches that Britain should become an Islamic state.

And although he claims to condemn terrorism, he has predicted that "the time is fast approaching" when Muslims will win the jihad, or holy war, against non-believers.

His radical preaching was exposed in a recent documentary by Channel 4's Dispatches programme.

The mosque is in Small Heath, which adjoins the Sparkbrook area of Birmingham where severahomes and businesses were raided last week.

Nine arrests were made.

Police suspect the alleged plotters planned to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier and then broadcast the murder on the Internet.

Usamah, who lives near the mosque, has not held one of his monthly sermons since the arrests were made and was unavailable for comment yesterday.

But both he and those who run the mosque insist his comments have been taken out of context.

Usamah claims he encourages Muslims to "peacefully coexist here in the UK with non-Muslims" and that it was the "religious duty of all Muslims to obey UK law".

A mosque spokesman said: "We have a long track record of good community relations and peaceful co-existence with all sections of the wider community."

The mosque is affiliated to the moderate Muslim Council Of Britain, which has also rejected claims that Green Lane Mosque condones extremist views.