A RADICAL cleric banned from Britain for preaching hate spoke to crowds at a Wembley primary school on Sunday.

Omar Bakri Muhammad addressed a conference held at Sudbury Primary School by phone from Lebanon, where he moved after being deported.

The controversial sheikh reportedly told Muslims gathered at the meeting that working towards the creation of an Islamic state was a matter of their belief.

Another speaker said democracy, freedom and human rights were intellectual obstacles to the setting up of an Islamic state, while the army was a physical one.

Anjem Choudary, of Islam for the UK, who organised the event, promised a “tsunami” of similar conferences in the area.

He claimed Mr Bakri was convicted, in a Lebanese court, of providing training to Al-Qaeda militants but said the allegations were false.

Mr Choudary refused to condemn Al-Qaeda but refused to say whether or not he supported them.

He said: “Why should I condemn Muslims. I would not condemn any Muslim doing what he believes is justified according to the Shariah.

“I think the condemnation or support of any Muslim is based on the divine text.”

Mr Choudary, who helped Mr Bakri lead the now disbanded group Al-Muhajiroun, said there were a number of ways an Islamic state could be set up in Britain, including through a coup by the army.

He also said a caliphate could be created in another country and could then expand into Britain, where he believes the current political leaders should be replaced by ones implementing Shariah law.

He said: “I believe that these people have made themselves into God and they decide what’s right and wrong, and I believe that is anathema to our religion.”

But he added: “We don’t engage in any kind of attack here because we believe we have a covenant of security here. This is not a war situation.”

Councillor Paul Lorber, leader of Brent Council, said he was concerned when he found out the meeting had been planned.

Nancy Ludwig, a spokesman for the council, said: “Sudbury Primary is a foundation, community school which serves a diverse population, a large proportion of which is made up of Muslims from around the world.

“It has very good long-standing links with other local Islamic groups and it had no reason to suspect that the group in question was associated with extremism.”

Brent Police said they are monitoring the activity of the group in the area.