bbc: Stand-off at London mosque
The controversial London Islamic conference on the "positive outcomes" of
the September 11 attacks has gone ahead under "tense" conditions,
despite calls for it to be banned. Journalists were barred from
attending; protesters were barricaded by police.
Outside the mosque, police erected steel barricades to keep the BNP [British National Party] and Anti-Nazi League away from the mosque and each other. [...] Journalists hoping to attend the meeting were told by the mosque's leading cleric and al-Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri Mohammed that they would not be allowed in. He said that the mosque and al-Muhajiroun were not associated with al-Qaeda. But the cleric added: "Definitely al-Qaeda has got rational justification for what they did on 11 September. "Maybe I disagree with them, but they have the right to fight back especially after they (the United States) bombed Sudan, then they bombed Afghanistan." (see news.bbc.co.uk)