London, England - The most prominent British Muslim cleric to stand trial on terrorism charges since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States was found guilty by a London court on Tuesday of 11 counts including inciting murder.
Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri was also convicted of stirring up racial hatred and possessing a handbook "of use to terrorists". He could face life in prison.
The incitement to murder charges stemmed from sermons he delivered to his followers, mostly in the late 1990s, when his Finsbury Park mosque in North London was seen as a hotbed of radicalism, attracting followers from all over Europe.
Among those who worshipped there were convicted "shoebomber" Richard Reid, who tried to blow up an airliner over the Atlantic, and "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui, now fighting the death penalty after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges related to the September 11 attacks.
Hamza, who lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan, is still wanted by the United States on charges of trying to set up a "terrorist training camp" in the state of Oregon.
The Finsbury Park mosque helped earn the British capital the nickname "Londonistan" among European security services who felt Britain was too tolerant toward radical Muslim clerics.
In addition to the cases of Reid and Moussaoui, the mosque was a base for Kamel Bourgass, convicted last year in a conspiracy to launch chemical attacks with the poison ricin, and British suicide bombers who flew to Israel to attack a bar.
But despite immigration cases that tried to strip him of British citizenship for supporting Osama bin Laden, and high profile raids on the mosque, British police never tied any of those criminal cases directly to Abu Hamza.
A police source said before the verdicts were announced at the Old Bailey court: "We don't think that it's a coincidence but we don't have any evidence (to link Hamza to them) or he'd be facing a charge of directing terrorism."
"To say he's divorced from operational terrorism activity would probably be wrong. We're not saying he's the leader of global jihad but he is definitely part of that movement."