Anger at dropped 'racist' probe

Al Muhajiroun is led in the UK by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad

Jewish leaders have criticised a decision not to prosecute five men for distributing leaflets calling on Muslims to kill Jews.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was symptomatic of a long-term failure to prosecute anti-semitic literature under public order legislation.

It said there was little point in framing fresh legislation against religious hatred if existing laws were not used.

The five men were arrested a year ago at the beginning of the latest Palestinian uprising, the intifada.

The leaflets were handed out at Stamford Hill in north London - an area with a large Orthodox Jewish population.

They said: "The final hour will not come until the Muslims kill the Jews."

Police sources cited in the Jewish Chronicle said the decision not to prosecute was taken because the material was handed out in a single area, was targeted only at the Jewish community, and there was considered to be little or no likelihood of its causing civil unrest.

Leader watched

The leaflets were produced by a group associated with Al Muhajiroun, a radical Muslim group with a strong British base.

It is led in the UK by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is also under police investigation for recent comments.

Home Secretary David Blunkett recently told the BBC the authorities were studying him closely.

"We monitor carefully everything that he is saying, who he is inciting, and work out carefully at what point it would be productive to act so he is prevented from doing so," he said.