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Hilton hotel axes hate preachers conference after abuse of soldiers
Danny Brierley26.03.09
A London hotel has cancelled a conference that had been due to feature exiled Islamic hate preacher Omar Bakri and the ringleader of a protest against homecoming British soldiers.
Bakri, a self-styled sheikh dubbed the Tottenham Ayatollah for his anti-western sermons, was due to address an audience at a Hilton hotel via video link from his new home in Beirut tomorrow.
At the same event, Ishtiaq Alamgir, who led a protest against soldiers returning from Afghanistan in Luton on 9 March, planned to tell the audience how radical Islamic preachers should be protected from "persecution".
The event was organised by the London School of Sharia, set up after Bakri's Al-Muhajiroun group was banned under terrorism laws drawn up in the wake of the 7/7 bombings.
It was still being advertised on the group's website.
The event was intended to draw attention to the plight of radical clerics such as Abu Qatada, an alleged friend of Osama bin Laden and once one of the world's most wanted terror suspects, who is facing deportation from Britain. Speakers were also set to defend jailed hate preacher Abu Hamza and Bakri, who the group claims are being persecuted.
But managers at the hotel in Euston, close to where two of the four 7/7 July bomb attacks were carried out, scrapped it over fears it could damage the global group's reputation.
A 7/7 survivor who did not want to be named said: "These people are just idiots who make the lives of ordinary Muslims a misery. I can't say I blame the hotel for banning them. Who in their right mind would want anything to do with such awful people?"
A source at the Hilton said: "There was such a level of public anger about the demonstration in Luton that no one would want to touch this group with a barge pole.
"Letting this group use one of our hotels would have been madness for the brand. I don't know of any other organisation that would want to be associated with them."
The event's organiser, Anjem Choudary, a friend of Bakri and his co-leader of the London School of Sharia who once called for Pope Benedict to be executed, said he was not surprised by the ban.
"We expected it to be cancelled," he said. "We booked two venues but I'm not going to say where the other one is. Anyone turning up to the Hilton will be escorted to the new location."
A Hilton spokesman said: "The event is not taking place here. We had a provisional booking but it has been released. It was never fully confirmed and we do not have a personal opinion on these things."
Reader views (8)
As the content that would be coming from the 'conference' is suppportive of hate messages and calls for illegal activities across the board, why was it being allowed to convene in the first place?
- Rogan, Irving
I wouldn't let them use a public toilet.
- Peter Adams, London England
Someone showing some guts at last,well done Hilton hotels
- Linda, italy
Full marks to Hilton and my travel agent will now be booking me in there as hotel group of choice.
- Jock, Edinburgh
Good for Hilton hotels I say!
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
This makes me more likely to stay in a Hilton hotel. Good on them, I say.
- St, London
If you choose to live in the UK, it's not really too much to ask to respect UK law.
- Marianne, SW France
That's an awful abuse of their human rights. Where are Liberty and Amnesty when you need them. I'm sure they could get a government grant to hire a more sympathetic hotel.
- Ben Farrell, London
