Opening the trial at Old Bailey criminal court of the one-eyed, hook-handed former imam, prosecutor David Perry said Hamza preached "murder and hatred" during his sermons and lectures.
"You will hear the tapes and you will hear that the defendant, Sheikh Abu Hamza, encouraged his listeners, whether they were an audience at a private meeting or congregation at a mosque, to believe that it was part of a religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, God," he told the jury.
"And as part of the religious duty to fight for Allah, it was part of the religious duty to kill. The people they were encouraged to kill were non-believers."
Egyptian-born Hamza, 47, who preached at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, faces a total of 15 charges, including nine of "soliciting to murder" and four of using language aimed at stirring up racial hatred.
One of the charges accused him of possessing a document, "The Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad", which contained information "likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".
Another accuses him of having video and audio recordings which he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred.
Hamza - a British citizen by marriage - denies all the charges.
The grey-haired, bespectacled preacher, his hook removed and wearing a long, blue shirt and trousers, sat impassively next to three security officers and a legal adviser as proceedings got under way.
The court heard that his call for "jihad" - literally "struggle" in Arabic - extended to what he called "apostates" - those who had abandoned his version of Islam - and any "kufar" or non-believer.
Among the apostates were the leaders of a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, "who were too friendly with the democratic West", Perry said.
These, Western Europe and the United States were "legitimate targets", Hamza is alleged to have said.
Perry said the defendant's idea of "jihad" did not mean an inner spiritual struggle against sin, but instead physical fighting and murder of those who would not submit to "the true path" of Islam.
The lawyer said Hamza told his followers this was a "holy obligation" and spoke of wanting to establish a "world caliphate" or Muslim government under Sharia law, even at the White House in Washington.
As a spiritual leader, Hamza might have been expected to preach "tolerance, peaceful co-existence and mutual respect regardless of race, colour or creed", Perry said. But instead, his "intolerance, bigotry and hatred" was turned particularly against the Jews, who he said should be "removed from the Earth", he added.
"As you will hear, in the course of one of the lectures or sermons, he accuses the Jews of being blasphemers, traitors and dirty," the jury was told. "This, because of their treachery, because of their blasphemy, was why Hitler was sent into the world."
Perry told the jury the case against Hamza was not a trial against Islam, or its holy book, the Koran, but about what the defendant said.
"It is quite clear that no religion condones the murder or killing of innocent men, women or children or the dissemination of hatred and bigotry," he stated. "Any suggestion that murder and hatred can be wrapped in a cloak of righteousness and justified on the basis of the great religion of Islam and its book, the Koran, is simply incorrect."
The trial is expected to last about three weeks.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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