Read Hudson's executive summary and introduction. Then, review this article profiling al-Masri and write a commentary or analysis based on the topic at hand, the psychological and sociological aspects of terrorism. The minimum word count for this posting is 600 words.

Profile: Abu Hamza

Simon Jeffery and James Sturcke on the life of Abu Hamza, the extremist Muslim cleric, who a judge has ruled can be extradited to the US

Thursday November 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Abu Hamza.

Abu Hamza al-Masri is seen by many as the epitome of radical Islamist extremism and a deep embarrassment to mainstream Muslim society.
Born in Egypt, Hamza came to Britain in the early 1980s to study civil engineering, acquiring British citizenship through his marriage to Englishwoman Valerie Fleming.

Around this time, he was subsidising his studies in Brighton with work as a bouncer in the West End of London and showed no leanings towards extremism.

However, for him as for many others - Osama bin Laden included - the mujahideen campaign against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan marked a turning point.

According to his ex-wife, Hamza became more extreme in his views as their marriage went on. When the couple separated, he left Britain to fight in central Asia, returning minus an eye and a hand.

In January 1999, three British tourists were killed in Yemen, drawing public attention to the civil war there between fundamentalists and the secular government, which accused Hamza of recruiting Islamist warriors to the fundamentalist cause.

He was alleged to have been the leader of a cell called Supporters of Sharia, and was accused of sending his son, Mustafa Kamel, to Yemen, where he and five other British Muslims were convicted on terrorist charges.

There was an attempt to extradite him to Yemen in 1999, but detectives released him without charge after questioning.

Hamza's base was the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, where he attempted to indoctrinate impressionable Muslims.

He described the invasion of Iraq as a "war against Islam", claimed the September 11 attacks on the US were a Jewish plot and called the Columbia space shuttle disaster a "punishment from Allah" because Christian, Jewish and Hindu astronauts were aboard.

The failed shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the US over September 11, both attended his Finsbury Park sermons. Anti-terror police raided the building in 2003.

In February last year, Hamza was jailed for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

Sentencing him, the judge, Mr Justice Hughes, said he had "helped to create an atmosphere in which to kill has become regarded by some as not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice".

The US had already began a new set of extradition proceedings on allegations that he attempted to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon and plotted to kidnap westerners in Yemen.

Yet Hamza's brazenness also helped - with his knowledge or otherwise - the intelligence services. Following his conviction last year, it emerged he had repeatedly met MI5 and Special Branch officers.

A former MI5 agent who infiltrated the Finsbury Park mosque said Hamza was allowed to operate by the security services as long as he did not threaten Britain's national security. Both the agent and a close associate of Hamza claimed the cleric was an unwitting informant on other extremists.

Hamza is regarded as a marginal figure among British Muslims, but his treatment - with the arrests, attempts to revoke his citizenship and vilification in the press - raised concerns among some prominent members of the community.

The cleric has always maintained that he is a man of words, not violence, and that he acts as a spokesman for political causes.