Christians Under Attack

Rabbi Joseph Goldstein told the Old Bailey that he met up with the cleric at Finsbury Park Mosque in north London to discuss the pastoral care of a Jewish man that had married a Muslim woman.

At the time Hamza, 47, was the imam before he was thrown out and barred from preaching inside the mosque by its trustees.

Rabbi Goldstein, who is involved in synagogues in east London, said: "I met him in the office of the mosque and we spoke on the phone a couple of times.

"He was very pleasant, friendly and we and a cordial relationship."

"He was very open, very cordial and it was very easy to discuss the matter. We talked about various things, both personally and things that affected the community."

And the vicar of St Thomas's Church in Finsbury Park, Rev Stephen Coles, told the court how the pair met for the first time after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington to promote "inter-religious dialogue".

He said: "We got on extremely well. He was very hospitable. He asked me if I wanted a cup of tea and he treated me like a normal human being."

Rev Coles said they met twice over the years before Hamza was arrested in 2004.

Asked whether the meetings were friendly, Rev Coles said: "Sometimes we agreed about matters and sometimes we disagreed. It was not at any point aggressive or angry.

"We had in fact tried to have other meetings but it became difficult to arrange. After he was imprisoned I did not want the conversations to come to an end and I wrote to him to ask if he would like to have the conversations to continue and said I would like to meet up with him again."

Rev Coles said he visits Hamza in top security Belmarsh Prison and that since the first meeting they have written to each other.

He said: "We exchanged letters. He knew that both my parents had died in the period of my first and second meeting and he sent me condolences and asked how I was."

Asked what the pair discussed during the visit he added: "He asked me about my family and I asked him about his."

Hamza denies nine charges of soliciting the murder on non Muslims, four charges of inciting racial hatred towards non believers, particularly the Jews, one charge of possessing a "terrorist manual" and one charge of distributing race hate material.

The trial continues