The controversial Muslim preacher Abu Hamza has come under renewed attack for offering a direct link from his website to online footage of the murdered American, Nick Berg.
Berg’s murder last week sparked international outrage as masked extremists beheaded the American citizen in what was believed to be a ‘revenge-attack’ for the humiliation of Iraqi detainees at Abu Grahib prison.
The North London cleric has now had his website banned with the graphic video footage of Mr Berg’s death no longer available through the site.
Visitors to the online service are instead encouraged to spread the ‘Echoes of the Truth’ while more in-depth guidance is temporarily offline.
The site, called the ‘Supporters of Shareeah,’ has landed a Malaysian-based firm at the centre of the furore, forced to defend its position in generating the public service.
The company responsible, ‘Webvisions,’ serves over 14,000 accounts in 40 countries – and is considered a leading provider in the Asia-Pacific market.
Webvisions which operate sites for Sony, Nestle and Procter & Gamble, told the Daily Express Newspaper that it was unaware it was promoting Hamza’s anti-Western rants and subsequently pulled the site, once the group fully understood the seriousness of the available content.
An anonymous security source later commented to the paper saying: “The firm is the host company for loads of websites, so it can’t possibly keep a check on all of them.”
Webvisions are understood to manage websites for additional extremist groups including Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
However, in this instance the company said that on understanding the full implications of Mr Hamza’s website action was taken straight away to remove the service from reaching the public.
The security source revealed: “When it was alerted to Hamza’s site, Webvisions felt it had to act fast because of the global outrage at the Berg execution.”
The shutting down of Mr Hamza’s website is a welcome move to groups backing the Treasury decision to deport the Finsbury Park preacher from the UK on a permanent basis.
The cleric has been blamed by Home Secretary, David Blunkett, for inspiring anti-Western sentiments and recruiting terrorists through his Friday prayer sessions.
Mr Hamza said last week: “Our immediate duty now is to correct our own homeland. You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to become a Shaheed – you can be Shaheed right on your own doorstep. This is the best jihad.”
He later reflected, speaking of opponents who want him to follow the path of his website, saying:
“As God Almighty said, ‘if the whole of the people on the Earth have plotted to kill one believer, I will put them all to fire for it’ – because God Almighty is just. It is very important to be principled.”