Elec Tel By Sandra Laville (Filed: 26/08/2002)

Four people were arrested yesterday as supporters of the far Right clashed with Muslim radicals at a London rally to promote Islam.

Al-Muhajiroun - a fundamentalist group whose leader, the self-styled Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, has called on Muslims to fight the "evil forces" behind attacks on al-Q'aeda - attracted hundreds of people to its annual rally in Trafalgar Square.

But the afternoon of speeches was disrupted when 80 British National Party and National Front supporters - many wrapped in the flag of St George - began to hurl abuse.

Singing Rule Britannia and "No Surrender to the IRA", a group attempted to storm the stage. Two London men were arrested for alleged public order offences.

Two followers of al-Muhajiroun were held for alleged incitement to racial hatred.

Trouble began when Omar Brooks, a leading figure in the movement, addressed the crowd against a backdrop of posters, one of which read: "Blair has the blood of one million children on his hands."

As BNP and NF supporters surged forwards, Mr Brooks urged the crowd "not to listen to a bunch of racists".

Moments later, Suleyman Keeler, a convert to Islam, shouted: "Osama! Osama! Osama!" while the BNP displayed a poster reading: "Bin Laden is a murderer."

Mr Keeler responded: "I say Tony Blair is a murderer; George Bush is a murderer."

Bakri Mohammed, who also addressed the crowd, said the intention of the rally was to promote peace and spread the word of Islam.

Chief Supt Ian Thomas said he was allowing the meeting to go ahead. "As long as the Muslims here don't break the law they can continue," he said.

His officers had "corralled" far-Right protesters in the middle of the square and were allowing them to disperse in ones and twos.

-- Anonymous, August 26, 2002