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Cleric kept terrorism manual, court told
 Abu Hamza al-Masri is former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in London. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri kept a terrorism "manual" which contained a dedication to Osama bin Laden and suggested a list of potential targets including Big Ben, a court in London has heard. The 10-volume "encyclopedia" found at Hamza's home also advised hitting targets such as the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower to cause "destruction" and suggested attacks on museums or archaeological sites, the Old Bailey was told on the first day of his trial on Wednesday. It said plans "should be laid out" to hit buildings such skyscrapers, ports, airports, nuclear plants and football stadiums and it talked about attacking large congregations of people at Christmas. Egyptian-born Hamza, 47, from west London, faces nine charges under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 alleging he solicited others at public meetings to murder Jews and other non-Muslims. The former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in north London also faces four charges under the Public Order Act of 1986 of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior with the intention of stirring up racial hatred." He also faces one charge of possessing threatening, abusive or insulting sound recordings, and another charge under anti-terrorism laws. The court heard he preached "murder and hatred" to his followers, telling them it was their "religious duty to kill" non-Muslims. Hamza singled out Jews, proclaiming in one of his sermons that "Hitler was sent into the world" because of their "treachery ... blasphemy and filth," the court was told. Hamza, who has no hands and only one eye, sat flanked by three officers as he heard trial judge Mr. Justice Hughes tell the jury to ignore what they had read or heard about Hamza in the media. (Full story) The panel then heard prosecutor David Perry describe how Hamza had been found in possession of an "encyclopedia" of Afghani jihad. Perry said the book was "a manual for terrorism," that explained how to make explosives, assassination methods and the best means of attack. A further charge says Hamza was in possession of eight video and audio recordings, which he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred. In all, police seized 2,700 audio tapes and about 570 video tapes from two addresses -- one of them Hamza's home in west London -- during raids in 2003. Some of those tapes will be played for the jury of seven men and five women during the trial, which the judge said he expected to last three to four weeks. "You might expect the speeches (on the tapes) to contain hope and charity," Perry said. "In fact, he was preaching of murder and hatred in these talks." "He preached intolerance, bigotry and hatred ... in particular against the Jews as a racial group and a religious body," he said. "He told his audience that the Jews controlled the West and must be removed from the earth." "In the course of one lecture he accused the Jews of being blasphemous, traitors and dirty. This, because of the treachery, because of their blasphemy and filth, was why Hitler was sent into the world." "What he had to say didn't stop with hate-mongering. He was exhorting his listeners to kill." Perry quoted Hamza as saying in one speech that it would be necessary to "bleed the enemy, in his words, 'like you imagine you have one small knife, and you have a big animal in front of you. The size of the knife, you can't slaughter them with this. You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death, until he dies. Then you can cut up the meat the way you like it and leave it to the maggots.'" Hamza, who has lost both hands and is blind in one eye, sat impassively during Perry's opening statement, a woman sitting next to him to turn the pages of documents. He has pleaded innocent to all the charges, which were alleged to have been committed before May 2004. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Following his arrest Hamza did not answer questions, but instead gave a statement in which he claimed Islam was being placed on trial and that he had been the object of a witch hunt by the media and a hate campaign, the court was told. The cleric also denied hating Jews or Christians and said the encyclopedia had been given to him as a "gift" and that he had never read it. The trial continues. CNN's Jonathan Wald contributed to this report 
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