A SPEECH given in Blackburn in which Muslim cleric Abu Hamza incited murder helped send him to jail for seven years, it emerged today.

Video footage of the speech, filmed at a house in the town in September 1999, was shown to an Old Bailey jury to help prove that the preacher spouted race hate.

Today the Lancashire Council of Mosques and the police said they had not been aware of Hamza's visit to Blackburn in 1999, but stressed his views were not held by the majority of local Muslims.

It is believed the speech was made inside a house in front of a small audience.

Hamza is filmed talking while sitting on a carpeted floor in front of a table and incites the murder of non-Muslims.

He said: "If he doesn't respect Dawa propagation of Islam kill him...killing a Kaffir non-believer for any reason, you can say it is OK even if there is no reason for it."

He also told his audience: "..don't go to the man who is selling a wine shop and tell him please why you selling the wine shop, come to the mosque?

"Make sure that the man who gave him the licence for that wine shop does not exist anymore on the Earth.

"Finish him up. Give him Dawa. If he doesn't respect Dawa, kill him. You have to understand that Dawa is good..."

The handless cleric also visited the Bangor Street Community in March 2003 to talk against the UK and US governments in front of more than 20 people, but that did not form part of the case against him.

Today Coun Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: "His views are extremist.

"He was never welcome here and not many people attended. We do not want to be associated with him.

"We have fantastic community relations in Blackburn and long may it continue."

Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw said: "I am very pleased that this man is going to be behind bars.

"That is the only place for people who preach hatred and killing and damage that wonderful religion.

"We do not want him polluting the environment of Blackburn as he attempted to do."

The 1999 speech was one of 570 videos and 2,700 audio tapes found at his London home during a police raid in May 2004.

Nine speeches were presented to the jury in either transcripts or video footage form as Hamza faced 15 charges.

Yesterday they found him guilty of 11 of the counts, including the Blackburn speech.

Mr Justice Hughes, jailing Hamza, told the preacher that his words had created a "real danger" for people across the world.

They generated an atmosphere in which his devoted followers felt it was their duty to kill, he added.

The judge said: "I do not make the mistake that you represent Islamic thinking generally.

"You are entitled to your views and in this country you are entitled to express them, but only up to the point where you incite murder or use language calculated to incite racial hatred. That is what you did."

Speaking after the case, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said: "We shall never know how much pain and suffering Hamza and his followers have caused. We do know his words have caused anguish and fear among many communities.

"This was Abu Hamza on trial, not Islam, not the Muslim community.

"The overwhelming majority of Muslims totally reject the hatred and violence peddled by Hamza. For many years, most people have found Hamza deeply offensive.

"We have now been able to show that what he was saying was also illegal."

Hamza, who is now facing extradition to the US to face further charges, was convicted unanimously of six out of the nine soliciting to murder charges.

He was also found guilty of three charges of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with the intention of stirring up racial hatred.