Hospital suspends Muslim chaplain

LONDON: A Muslim preacher who chanted "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is great) while showing children film of planes flying into the World Trade Centre has been suspended as a chaplain at a hospital here.
 
Usman Ali, 30, a former member of the now-banned al-Muhajiroun radical movement, was removed from his post after police expressed serious concerns, media reported Friday.
 
Ali was ousted from his job at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, south-east London, after a BBC London investigation into the incident.
 
Before losing his job, Ali upset people at Friday prayers by inviting a guest preacher who praised pro-Taliban rebels in Pakistan as martyrs, The Times reported.
 
The preacher, a British-born father of four, had previously been banned for life from a local mosque, the Greenwich Islamic Centre. The institution spent at least 30,000 pounds taking legal action to the county court so that Ali could be forbidden from attending the mosque.
 
Court papers claim he showed a video to children in the mosque containing clips of the 9/11 incident and chanted "Allah-o-Akbar". The mosque said it tried informally to warn the hospital about its concerns months ago.
 
According to the report, the BBC attended a session at the Queen Elizabeth's prayer room where worshipers became uncomfortable hearing radical views expressed by a guest preacher who hailed the militants of the Lal Masjid in Pakistan as defenders of Islam.
 
The hospital trust said: "We had no allegations made about this man's behaviour but as soon as the police raised their concerns we took action."