A Muslim extremist has been found guilty of firebombing the home of the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Mohammed and his child bride

Abbas Taj, 31, a minicab driver from Forest Gate, East London, had claimed he was simply giving two other men a lift to the house in an exclusive square in Islington, North London. The other men, Ali Beheshti, 41, and Abrar Mirza, 23, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to recklessly damaging property and endangering life following the attack on Saturday September 27, 2008. The men were under surveillance by police who had warned Martin Rynja, 43, and his partner, to move out of their four-storey townhouse, which had an office in the basement. Taj's car, a Honda Accord, had been bugged by officers and their conversation was recorded as they drove to the square. The 3 men were observed driving twice through the square in Islington before Beheshti and Mirza approached the front door with a petrol can in a white plastic bag, poured diesel fuel through the letter box and used a disposable lighter to set it on fire. It was alleged that Taj, who was born in Somalia, East Africa, but moved to Britain at the age of 15, was acting as the getaway driver and as armed police swooped, his car was stopped near the Angel tube station not far away. Rynja, who ran a company called Gibson Square Books, had been planning to publish a historical novel by US author Shelley Jones called the Jewel of Medina about the Prophet Mohamed's third wife Aisha, who married him at the age of nine.