This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1708

Son of convicted 'hate preacher' Abu Hamza returns to UK after own prison term for terrorism to collect welfare and launch career as Jihad rapper

March 2, 2006

Radical cleric's son eyes career as terror rapper 'I've got a lot of anger': Father jailed for racial hatred and soliciting murder
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=e60e7ab0-54be-459a-808e-7baf2fa7e344&k=88193
Agence France-Presse; with files from news services

Wednesday, March 01, 2006
CREDIT: Jim Watson, Agence France-Presse
Mohammed Kamel Mostafa reads prayers outside a London mosque. Jailed in 1999 for plotting to kill tourists in Yemen, he is now set on the life of a rap star as a member of the duo Lionz of Da Dezert.

LONDON - The son of jailed radical Islamist imam Abu Hamza al-Masri is embracing rap music to sing the praises of Hezbollah and Hamas, the Sun newspaper reported yesterday.

The best-selling daily said it sent reporters undercover to meet Mohammed Kamel Mostafa -- who goes by stage name Al-Ansary (the lion) in the rap duo Lionz of Da Dezert -- in a recording studio in north London set up by the paper.

"I want to put out an album for the mainstream market, then make a CD featuring hardcore lyrics," the British-born 24-year-old told them, adding he can "easily make more than a million [British pounds]. A million is nothing.

"I've been concentrating on gigs but there's a big market out there, trust me. Five thousand people came to see me play [in London].

"My aim is to record and finish three different albums. One is Islamic, one is Middle Eastern, one is hip-hop. I can appeal to three different markets," said the British-born Mostafa, Hamza's oldest child by his first wife, Valerie.

"It took me six months to learn how to produce music. Now I don't need to go to the studio and pay big money to make a recording. I can do it at home.

"I guarantee you, my music will be popular all over the Middle East -- from Egypt to Palestine."

He also revealed plans for a music video to be broadcast on TV across the Arab world.

Asked if he hoped to become as big a name as al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, he said, "Inshallah," Arabic for "God willing."

He handed the Sun reporters a track featuring lyrics about terror and took the microphone to sing others.

The younger Hamza also said he had received special-forces military training in Yemen, where he was jailed for three years in 1999 for plotting to kill tourists and embassy staff, the paper said.

"Helicopters, tanks, planes, I can fly and drive them. I've a lot of anger inside me," he said.

"But I'm not scared. Jihad is clear, you fight those who fight you -- Muslim or non-Muslim."

Mostafa also hinted he had bomb-making skills.

"If I'm stuck in a place where I really want to escape, I can make something up using sugar and stuff," he said.

Meanwhile, the would-be jihadist rapper is living in a rented room in northwest London while allegedly studying business. He gets a (ps)44.50 ($88.80) weekly unemployment cheque, the paper said, despite recently selling an apartment belonging to his father for a (ps)150,000 ($299,000) profit.

The elder Hamza, 47, best-known as the hook-handed imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London, was sentenced on Feb. 7 to seven years in prison after being found guilty of inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder.

JIHAD RAP

I was born to be a soldier,

Kalashnikov on my shoulder,

Peace to Hamas and Hezbollah,

That's the way of the lord Allah.

We're jihad. I defend my religion with the holy sword.

Ran with fact box "Jihad Rap" which has been appended to the story.

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1708