HSBC Bank notified the Finsbury Park Mosque, where convicted terrorist Abu Hamza held forth, and other Muslim organizations including the think tank Cordoba Trust and the Bolton-based charity Ummah Welfare Trust that it is closing their accounts as they are beyond the bank’s “risk appetite.” In 2012 the bank paid out nearly $2 billion in a US settlement of money-laundering claims. After being given new evidence relating to the Trojan Horse plot to inject Islamist extremism into area schools, the West Midlands Police began investigating whether any crimes have taken place. Razwan Faraz, the deputy head at one of the schools, was suspended; he is a brother of Ahmed Faraz, a Birmingham bookseller who distributed extremist literature.
