HEAD bobbing maniacally, his good eye catching the intent gazes of the young Muslim men, Abu Hamza launches into a vociferous round of rhetoric for which he has become world famous, worshipped and loathed.

He rants about making sacrifices in the cause of Allah, waving his handless arm in defiance. A young Muslim tentatively asks the cleric if suicide bombing is allowed.

"It is not called suicide - this is called shahada, martyring, because if the only way to hurt the enemies of Islam, except by taking your life for that, then it is allowed." replies Hamza. "..the person who hinders Allah's rule, this man must be eliminated."

Delivered at sometimes ear splitting volume, Abu Hamza's anti-Western rants of hatred and incitement would go on to inspire hundreds of impressionable young Muslims who would quickly become a magnet for radicals worldwide.

Yesterday, his persuasive oratory saw him jailed for seven years at London's Old Bailey after being found guilty of inciting murder and race hate. But even as he was led away, his solicitor Muddassar Arani, was quick to point out that Hamza considered himself to be a "prisoner of faith" and subject to "slow martyrdom". It is an image his followers will be keen to promote, and the distinctive cleric has had plenty of those since he first came to Britain in July 1979.

When he first arrived with plans to study in Brighton to become a civil engineer, he appeared to fit well into the Western way of life. Hamza, real name Mustafa Kemal Mustafa, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in April 1958 to middle-class parents. Initially he was admitted to Britain for a month, but he kept applying to extend his leave to remain.

It was while working as a bouncer at a Soho nightclub in London's West End to fund his studies that he met his future wife, a British woman called Valerie Traversa, a window dresser from Chelsea, and they married in May 1980.

The marriage lasted four years and in the same year the couple divorced he married a Moroccan woman, Najat Chaffe. Two years later, by virtue of having lived in the UK for five years, Hamza was granted British citizenship in 1986, swearing an oath of allegiance to the Crown.

But as the decade wore on, Hamza began to turn towards the most fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. It is unclear why, but it has been suggested that the racial abuse of his son turned him into a critic of Western society. Whatever drove his reinvention, he soon returned to Egypt where he began calling himself a Muslim "holy man" or sheikh.

He travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where it is unclear whether Hamza fought in the jihad (holy war) which was raging, but it was while he was there that he lost his eye and his hands, which Hamza claims happened while clearing Russian landmines as he fought against the Soviet occupation.

He returned to the UK in the 1990s and became a preacher at Finsbury Park mosque in north London. During his time there, the mosque would become a breeding ground for terrorism, with Hamza holding a controlling influence as its Imam. The mosque became a shelter for the radical young Muslims who arrived in Britain from abroad.

Among the terror suspects linked to the mosque were Richard Reid. He was jailed for life in America after he tried to detonate a shoe bomb on board a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami in 2001. Others said to have taken shelter there were Zacarias Moussaoui, a French Moroccan and the only person to have been charged over the September 11 attacks, and Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian convicted last year over an alleged plot to manufacture the deadly poison ricin following a raid on a flat in Wood Green, north London.

But it was after the September 11 atrocities that Hamza really burst into the national consciousness, declaring that: "Many people will be happy, jumping up and down at this moment."

His praise for Osama bin Laden and condemnations of Britain, the US and Israel led to the Charity Commission, Britain's charity watchdog, to begin an investigation into his role at Finsbury Park. The media labelled him a "firebrand" and "preacher of hate". In April 2002, he was formally suspended but continued to give controversial sermons outside the mosque.

But the evidence against him was mounting and, in January 2003, the police raided the mosque. They found an array of terrorist paraphernalia, including nuclear, biological and chemical protective suits, blank firing weapons and a stun gun.

The following February, the Charity Commission finally dismissed him from Finsbury Park.

The turning point legally came in April 2003 following an intense media campaign against the cleric. Mr Blunkett announced the new law allowing British citizenship to be removed from immigrants who "seriously prejudiced" the UK's interests. In a dramatic twist before he could be deported under the new Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act, the US made an extradition request for him to face 11 terrorism charges there. Among the accusations were Hamza's links to high ranking Taliban and al Qaida figures and of helping young recruits to travel to the terror network's training camps in Afghanistan.

In August 2004, Hamza, who was already in Belmarsh high security jail awaiting the extradition proceedings, was arrested again by the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorist Branch. The charges were eventually brought after it was decided that Hamza's rantings crossed over into illegality based on some of the hundreds of audio and video tapes found during a search of his Shepherds Bush home in west London, together with a ten volume encyclopaedia described as a terrorist training manual.

The images of Hamza ranting were released to the media yesterday. But his rhetoric was apparently at odds with the way he came across in police interviews.

One of the police officers who interviewed him said he appeared courteous, polite, educated and "very calm".

"I see the person ranting and I do not think it is the same person," the officer said. "He is calm, polite and respectful."

Yesterday, Hamza returned to Belmarsh to begin his seven year sentence. But with time served and with good behaviour he may be out within two years.

Regardless of how long he serves, he can certainly expect a phone call from Uncle Sam. The US is still awaiting Hamza's extradition.