Abdullah el-Faisal: Difference between revisions

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Abdullah el-Faisal (born c. 1964, in Saint James Parish, Jamaica as Trevor William Forest) is a Jamaican Muslim who worked in the United Kingdom until he was deported back to Jamaica in 2007. El-Faisal was convicted of urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus, and Americans, and sentenced to nine years, of which he served four years.^[1]

El-Faisal was born to a Salvation Army family of practicing Christians.^[2] At the age of 16, el-Faisal converted to Islam,^[3] after being introduced to the religion by a high school teacher.^[2] He studied at an Islamic institution in Guyana,^{[citation needed]} after which he traveled to the UK. El-Faisal trained in Islamic studies in Saudi Arabia for seven years.^[2]

El-Faisal returned to the United Kingdom in 1992, married a British biology graduate, and became a preacher at the Brixton mosque.^[4] He often preached to crowds of up to 500 people.^[4] Referred to as "Sheikh",^[1] el-Faisal gave lectures to study groups throughout the United Kingdom.^[3] These lectures were taped and sold at specialist bookshops.^[3] El-Faisal has also traveled throughout Nigeria giving lectures.^{[citation needed]}

He has also been associated with the Brixton Mosque, in South London. but was ousted from the mosque by its Salafi administration in 1993. After el-Faisal's expulsion from Brixton Mosque he lectured about The Devil's Deception of the Saudi Salafis in 1996, scorning the Salafi Muslims (of Brixton Mosque in particular) and making takfir of the Salafis. Within the lecture, carried by Jihadi websites, el-Faisal says the Neo-Salafis "are hypocrites.... the worst ... not to be prayed behind."^[5] El-Faisal according to his own testimony left the Brixton area in 1993.^[6] El-Faisal in a lecture in the late 1990s entitled The Devil's Deception of the 21st Century House Niggers makes takfir of African-American Salafi preacher Abu Usamah and calls for his assassination.^[7]

One of the accused 7/7 suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay, was a known follower of El-Faisal. In an interview with the BBC in June 2008, he admitted knowing Germaine Lindsay but insisted he had not radicalised him.^[8][9]

After a four-week trial at the Old Bailey in 2003, el-Faisal was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women of three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, and Hindus, and two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred. El-Faisal was sentenced to nine years, of which he served four years. His taped lectures formed the basis of the prosecution case against him. During the trial he denied he had intended to incite people to violence, and testified that he had held Osama Bin Laden in "great respect," but that Bin Laden had "lost the path" since 11 September.^[10]

In May 2007 the Home Secretary announced that el-Faisal had been deported.^[11]

In a more recent 45-minute interview on a Jamaican TV programme entitled Religious Hardtalk in November 2007, el-Faisal described 9/11 and 7/7 as immoral and condemned suicide bombings.^[12]

In a May 2005 online posting under the name “farouk1986,” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspected Flight 253 bomber, referred to El-Faisal, writing: “i thought once they are arrested, no one hears about them for life and the keys to their prison wards are thrown away. That’s what I heard sheikh faisal of UK say (he has also been arrested i heard).”^[13]

Upon being eligible for parole in 2007, el-Faisal was released from prison and then deported from the UK. He remains on an international watch list, and has apparently been living in Africa. El-Faisal was allowed entry to Kenya from Tanzania on 24 December 2009, due to a computer error. The immigration minster of Kenya said the government would soon be deporting him.^[14]

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• The Official Website of Sheikh Faisal's North American Representatives
• Radical preacher Faisal ‘mistake to let him out early’
• Preacher al-Faisal finally deported
• Deported cleric to preach here
• El-Faisal wants mom to meet wife and kids
• Deported Islamic cleric back in Jamaica
• Royal Court of Justice Documentation - Judgment on Abdullah el-Faisal
• Race hate preacher Faisal deported
• Race hate cleric faisal deported
• BBC: Hate preaching cleric jailed.
• ‘Sheikh’ Faisal vows to Islamise Jamaica
• Hate preacher 'knew 7/7 bomber'
• Interview with 'hate' preacher
• Critical Study of Abdullah el-Faisal's Methodology
• Critique of Abdullah el-Faisal