Abdullah el-Faisal

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Abdullah el-Faisal (born c. 1964) is a Jamaican Muslim who worked in the UK until he was deported back to Jamaica in 2007.

Biography

El-Faisal was born in Saint James Parish, Jamaica as Trevor William Forest to a Salvation Army family of practicing Christians.^[1] At the age of 16, el-Faisal converted to Islam,^[2] after being introduced to the religion by a high school teacher.^[1] El-Faisal 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.^[1]

El-Faisal returned to the United Kingdom in 1992, married a British biology graduate, and became a preacher at the Brixton mosque.^[3] El-Faisal often preached to crowds of up to 500 people.^[3] Referred to as "Sheikh",^[4] el-Faisal gave lectures to study groups all throughout the United Kingdom.^[2] These lectures were taped and sold at specialist bookshops.^[2] El-Faisal has also traveled throughout Nigeria giving lectures.^{[citation needed]}

Controversy

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He has also been associated with the Brixton Mosque, in south London but was ousted from Brixton 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 wherein he pours scorn on the Salafi Muslims (of Brixton Mosque in particular) and makes takfir of the Salafis. Within the lecture, which can still be found on Jihadi websites to this day along with other lectures from el-Faisal, el-Faisal says about the Neo-Salafis that "...they 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] El-Faisal was sentenced to 9 years, of which he served 4 years, for urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and Americans.^[4] One of the accused 7/7 suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay, was a known follower of Abdullah El-Faisal.

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 9 years, of which he served 4 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 September 11.^[8]

In May 2007 the Home Secretary announced that he had been deported.^[9] In a 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.^[10]

In an interview with the BBC in June 2008 he admitted knowing Germaine Lindsay but insisted he had not radicalised him.^[11][12]

References

External links

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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