British National Party leader Nick Griffin told a crowd that Islam was a "wicked, vicious faith" and Asian Muslims were turning Britain into a multiracial hell as they tried to conquer the country, a court heard yesterday.

Griffin urged the gathering, in Keighley, to vote BNP to ensure "the British people really realise the evil of what these people have done to our country".

The 47-year-old BNP chairman, and fellow party activist Mark Collett, 25, face a series of charges arising out of speeches filmed by BBC journalist Jason Gwynne, who posed as a BNP supporter in Bradford, for a documentary on the party.

Leeds Crown Court was told both men addressed a crowd at the Reservoir Tavern, Keighley, on January 19, 2004.

Reading excerpts from the speeches, prosecutor Rodney Jameson QC told the court Griffin said white society had turned into a multiracial "hell".

The jury was shown the speeches in which, when referring to Islam, Griffin said: "This wicked, vicious faith has expanded from a handful of cranky lunatics about 1,300 years ago. It's now sweeping country after country before it, all over the world. And if you read that book (the Koran), you'll find that that's what they want."

Speaking of recent attacks on young white girls, Griffin said: "The police force and elected governors haven't done a damn thing about it. Their good book (the Koran) tells them that that's acceptable.

"If you doubt it, go and buy a copy and you will find verse after verse and you can take any woman you want as long as it's not a Muslim woman."

Griffin's speech turned to allegations of violence by Asian Muslims against whites.

He said: "These 18, 19, and 25-year-old Asian Muslims who are seducing and raping white girls in this town right now are not particularlygood Muslims, they drink and all the rest of it, but still part of what they are doing comes from what they are taught is acceptable."

Griffin said Asian community leaders would condemn the attacks to the press, but not to the attackers themselves.

The court heard Collett addressed the gathering on the same evening, saying: "Let's show these ethnics the door in 2004."

Mr Jameson said that instead of contributing to a debate on multiculturalism, Collett's speeches were "little more than crude racist rants".

Mr Jameson read excerpts from a speech in which Collett said people in Bradford and Keighley were living in a "multiracial hell-hole" because of rapes and muggings which were always carried out by Asian people on white people.

During the speech, Collett said: "If the local papers saw what I was saying tonight, they would call me, and they would call you, racists.

"But the racism is against whites.

"When these Asians go out looking for a victim, they don't go looking for Asian victims. They don't go mugging Asian grandmas, they don't go stabbing each other, they don't go trying to solicit sex off little Pritesh or little Sanjita, they go straight to the whites because they are trying to destroy us and they are the racists."

In a speech, delivered at the Crossroads public house in Keighley on March 31, 2004, Collett said gangs of Asian lads wanted "to wipe out white people".

Mr Jameson said the men used the technique of building fear and resentment of Asian people by referring to rapes and muggings. He said they created a "nightmare vision", claiming Asians were entirely responsible for the crimes.

Griffin, a father of four, of Llanerfyl, Powys, mid Wales, denies one count of using words or behaviour intended to stir up racial hatred and an alternative count of using words or behaviour likely to stir up racial hatred. Collett, of Swithland Lane, Rothley, Leicestershire, denies four similar charges .

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Norman Jones QC, adjourned the retrial until Monday, when the case for the defence is due to begin.