Editing Abu Hamza al-Masri (section)

==Background==
Hamza was born Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, in [[Alexandria]], Egypt, in 1958, the son of a middle-class army [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]]. In 1979, he entered Britain on a [[student visa]].<ref name="graun1">{{cite news|url=http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,7991,946966,00.html|title=5 tough questions about asylum-part 2|last=Brooks|first=Libby|date=1 May 2003|work=The Guardian|access-date=18 March 2009|location=London|archive-date=26 April 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050426120234/http://society.guardian.co.uk/asylumseekers/story/0,7991,946966,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

His initial reaction to life in Britain was to describe it as "a paradise, where you could do anything you wanted."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/abu-hamza.shtml|title=BBC Four&nbsp;– Storyville|publisher=BBC|date=25 November 2011|access-date=10 April 2012|archive-date=18 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118145554/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/abu-hamza.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> He studied civil engineering at [[University of Brighton|Brighton Polytechnic]].<ref name="scotsman">{{cite news|url=http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1081&id=77202003|title=As a fundamentalist cleric reviled and revered for his preaches of hate|last=Lawson|first=Tracy|date=21 January 2003|work=The Scotsman|access-date=18 March 2009|archive-date=6 May 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050506012739/http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1081&id=77202003|url-status=live}}</ref> Prior to his adoption of Islamism in Malta, 1999, Hamza was known as a "gentle giant" and a "womaniser".<ref name="GadSTAug18">{{cite news |last1=Gadher |first1=Dipesh |title=Ladies' man Abu Hamza plunged hook, line and sinker into Soho sleaze |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/ladies-man-abu-hamza-plunged-hook-line-and-sinker-into-soho-sleaze-nnsb2p7q7 |access-date=27 August 2018 |work=The Sunday Times |date=26 August 2018 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=26 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826212055/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/ladies-man-abu-hamza-plunged-hook-line-and-sinker-into-soho-sleaze-nnsb2p7q7 |url-status=live }}</ref> Hamza gained employment as a bouncer in the strip bars of Soho under his original name from 1980 until 1983, when club owner Jean Agius was arrested and charged for conspiring to be a [[Procuring (prostitution)|pimp]]. Agius alleges that Hamza may have also co-owned a club during this time.<ref name="GadSTAug18"/>

In the early 1990s, Hamza lived in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] under another name, and fought alongside [[Bosniaks]] against [[Serbs]] and [[Croats]] during the [[Bosnian War]].<ref name="rfe">{{cite news|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/02/585e69f9-0847-4e76-9750-14d31a46bd81.html|title=U.K.: Muslim Extremist Preacher Gets Seven Years in Jail|last=Nun|first=Jan|date=8 February 2006|publisher=Radio Free Europe|access-date=21 March 2009|archive-date=14 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080614145616/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/02/585e69f9-0847-4e76-9750-14d31a46bd81.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="tol">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article728227.ece|title=Profile: Abu Hamza|last=Naughton|first=Philippe|date=7 February 2006|work=Times Online edition|access-date=21 March 2009|location=London|archive-date=21 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521164808/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article728227.ece|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hamza, who has one eye and no hands, once claimed he lost them fighting [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet forces in Afghanistan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/14/abu-hamza-testify-new-york-terrorism-trial-jury-selection|title=Abu Hamza to testify in New York terrorism trial as jury selection begins|last=McVeigh|first=Karenn|date=14 April 2014|work=The Guardian|access-date=15 April 2014|archive-date=16 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416182212/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/14/abu-hamza-testify-new-york-terrorism-trial-jury-selection|url-status=live}}</ref> [[CNN]] reported they were "injuries he says he sustained while tackling a landmine in Afghanistan."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2004-05-27/world/uk.hamza.profile_1_abu-hamza-finsbury-park-mosque-controversial-muslim|title=Abu Hamza: Controversial Muslim figure|publisher=CNN|date=27 May 2004|access-date=10 April 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424104452/http://articles.cnn.com/2004-05-27/world/uk.hamza.profile_1_abu-hamza-finsbury-park-mosque-controversial-muslim?_s=PM:WORLD|archive-date=24 April 2012}}</ref>

Among several accounts that take issue with Hamza's story,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horgan |first=John |date=15 May 2009 |title=Walking Away from Terrorism: Accounts of Disengagement from Radical and Extremist Movements |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HmGOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-87473-8 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=8 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708022511/http://books.google.com/books?id=HmGOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Neill |first1=Sean |last2=McGrory |first2=Daniel |year=2006 |title=The Suicide Factory: Abu Hamza and the Finsbury Park Mosque |publisher=HarperPerennial |pages=21–29 |isbn=978-0-007-23469-1}}</ref> [[BBC]] security correspondent [[Gordon Corera]]'s introduction to [[Omar Nasiri]]'s memoir ''Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda'' says Hamza "boosted his credibility" with rumours he sustained the injuries fighting ''[[jihad]]''; also that Nasiri knew they resulted from "an accident during experiments in a training camp", and Hamza asked Nasiri "to keep this secret in order to avoid undermining his reputation."<ref>{{cite book |last="Nasiri |first=Omar" |year=2006 |title=Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda - A Spy's Story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EdD29KmPy7IC&q=Omar+Nasiri+Abu+Hamza&pg=PR19 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02388-2 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=26 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826223006/https://books.google.com/books?id=EdD29KmPy7IC&q=Omar+Nasiri+Abu+Hamza&pg=PR19 |url-status=live }}</ref> This version of events is corroborated by [[Aimen Dean]], a senior figure in [[Al-Qaeda|al-Qaeda's]] chemical weapons programme turned [[double agent]] for [[MI6]]. Both Dean and Hamza were trained by [[Midhat Mursi|Abu Khabab]], al-Qaeda's top bomb maker. Dean states that Hamza sustained his injuries at a training camp near [[Lahore]] where, having prepared a batch of [[nitroglycerin]], Hamza ignored his tutor's instructions to wait for the mixture to cool before inserting the [[detonator]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Dean |first=Aimen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1004259464 |title=Nine lives : my time as MI6's top spy inside al-Qaeda |date=2018 |publisher=Oneworld |others=Paul Cruickshank, Tim Lister |isbn=978-1-78607-328-0 |edition=Hardback |location=London, England |pages=146–150 |oclc=1004259464}}</ref> During his trial in the United States, Hamza stated that his injuries occurred whilst working with explosives with the [[Pakistan Armed Forces|Pakistani military]] in Lahore.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11701269|title=Profile: Abu Hamza|date=9 January 2015|work=BBC News|access-date=20 May 2014|archive-date=20 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520044643/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11701269|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Family===
On 16 May 1980, Hamza married British citizen Valerie Fleming, a [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] [[religious conversion|convert]] to Islam,<ref name="bbcfeb06">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4694218.stm|title=Hamza's ex-wife life threatened|date=8 February 2006|publisher=BBC|access-date=18 March 2009|archive-date=19 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819054537/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4694218.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> and soon after they had a son, Mohammed Mustafa Kamel born in October 1981. In 1984, their relationship came under increasing strain and later in that year Hamza took three-year-old Mohammed with him to Egypt, effectively breaking contact with Valerie.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Syal|first1=Rajeev|title=Hooked on Hamza|url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/hooked-on-hamza-39lzhng27ff|date=18 February 2006|work=[[The Times]]|location=London|url-access=subscription|access-date=20 July 2017|archive-date=29 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729002016/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hooked-on-hamza-39lzhng27ff|url-status=live}}</ref> Eventually they divorced and he married Najat Mustafa, with whom he has seven children: five sons followed by two daughters.<ref>{{cite news|last=Casciani|first=Dominic|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4644960.stm|title=Profile: Abu Hamza|publisher=BBC|date=7 February 2006|access-date=10 April 2012|archive-date=13 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213163722/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4644960.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Hamza's stepdaughter, Donna Traverso, told ''[[The Times]]'' in 2006 that she was convinced Hamza had duped her mother, Valerie, into marrying him in order to gain the right to stay in the UK.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Syal |first1=Rajeev |title=Dad is a coward, a hypocrite and he deserves to rot in jail |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/dad-is-a-coward-a-hypocrite-and-he-deserves-to-rot-in-jail-8hfj38jt6f8 |access-date=27 August 2018 |work=[[The Times]] |date=27 July 2006 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=28 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828035859/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dad-is-a-coward-a-hypocrite-and-he-deserves-to-rot-in-jail-8hfj38jt6f8 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1999, Hamza's son Mohammed, then 17 years old, was arrested in [[Yemen]] with Hamza's stepson Mohssin Ghalain and eight other men. All were tried and convicted of planning a terrorist bombing campaign that the prosecution alleged Hamza had sent the men to carry out. Mohammed and Mohssin received prison sentences of three and seven years, respectively.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Britons convicted of Yemen bomb plot|date=9 August 1999|newspaper=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/415096.stm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717031707/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/415096.stm|archive-date=17 July 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=11 March 2000|title=Abu Hamza and the Islamic Army: Day by Day: A chronology of events surrounding the "bomb plot" and kidnapping|publisher=Albab|url=http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/hamza/day.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000525042938/http://www.al-bab.com/yemen/hamza/day.htm|archive-date=25 May 2000|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hamza's Moroccan daughter-in-law was jailed for attempting to smuggle a mobile phone sim card when visiting him in [[HM Prison Belmarsh|Belmarsh prison]] in 2012. She is now facing deportation but because she is the sole carer of her son, a British national, the European Court of Justice's [[advocate general]] has ruled she cannot automatically be deported despite her criminality unless she is deemed to pose a 'serious' threat to society.<ref>{{cite news|title=Woman fighting deportation is Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law, says MP|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/06/woman-fighting-deportation-is-abu-hamzas-daughter-in-law-says-mp|work=The Guardian|date=6 February 2016|access-date=20 July 2017|archive-date=6 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906090950/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/06/woman-fighting-deportation-is-abu-hamzas-daughter-in-law-says-mp|url-status=live}}</ref>