Abdullah el-Faisal

Abdullah el-Faisal (born c. 1964) is a controversial Muslim preacher most known for being convicted for practicing hate speech.

Biography

El-Faisal was born in Saint James Parish, Jamaica as Trevor William Forest to a Salvation Army family of practicing Christians.cite web
url = http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20060827/news/news7.html
title = 'Terrorist' preacher was a quiet boy - mother
accessdate = 2007-12-23
last = Plunkett
first = Nagra
date = August 27, 2006
publisher = Jamaica Gleaner] At the age of 16, el-Faisal converted to Islam,cite web
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,902009,00.html
title = Muslim cleric guilty of soliciting murder
accessdate = 2007-12-23
date = February 4, 2003
work = Special report: Race in the UK
publisher = The Guardian] after being introduced to the religion by a high school teacher. El-Faisal studied at an Islamic institution in Guyana,Fact|date=December 2007 after which he traveled to the UK. El-Faisal trained in Islamic studies in Saudi Arabia for seven years.

El-Faisal returned to the United Kingdom in 1992, married a British biology graduate, and became a preacher at the Brixton mosque.cite web
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/25/npreach125.xml
title = July 7 preacher Abdullah El-Faisal deported
accessdate = 2007-12-23
last = Johnston
first = Philip
date = May 27, 2007
publisher = The Telegraph] El-Faisal often preached to crowds of up to 500 people. Referred to as "Sheikh",cite web
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2829059.stm
title = Hate preaching cleric jailed
accessdate = 2007-12-23
date = March 7, 2003
publisher = BBC News] el-Faisal gave lectures to study groups all throughout the United Kingdom. These lectures were taped and sold at specialist bookshops. El-Faisal has also traveled throughout Nigeria giving lectures. Fact|date=December 2007

Controversy

He has also been associated with the Brixton Mosque, in south London but was ousted from Brixton Mosque by its Salafi administration in 1993, due to el-Faisal's increasing extremism. After el-Faisal's expulsion from Brixton Mosque he began to go even more extreme and this culminated in his lecture "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 Salafis that "...they are hypocrites....the worst...not to be prayed behind." [cite web |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF0sI6xgh-M&mode=related&search= |title=Video of lecture 'The Devil's Deception of the Saudi Salafis'] El-Faisal according to his own testimony left the Brixton area in 1993. [cite web | url=http://www.salafimanhaj.com/pdf/SalafiManhaj_Deception.pdf |title=Critical Study of the Beliefs and Statements of Abdullah Faisal] 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. [cite web | url=http://www.haqunspun.com/product_info.php?products_id=295|title=The Devil's Deception of the 21st Century House Niggers] El-Faisal was jailed for 9 years for urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and Americans. 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. 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. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2784591.stm] Ryan, Margaret, "Cleric preached racist views", news report, BBC News Web site, February 24, 2003, accessed December 23, 2007]

In May 2007 the Home Secretary announced that he had been deported. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6691701.stm|title=BBC News: Race hate cleric Faisal deported] 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. [cite web|url=http://islambase.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1034&Itemid=181|title=Jamaican TV Interview with Abdullah Faisal]

References

External links

* [http://www.revolutionmuslim.com The Official Website of Sheikh Faisal's North American Representatives]
* [http://www.themuslimweekly.com/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=BFA2EF14A1331273C1B3A187&MENUID=HOMENEWS&DESCRIPTION=UK%20News Radical preacher Faisal ‘mistake to let him out early’ ]
* [http://www.salafimanhaj.com/pdf/SalafiManhaj_Deception.pdf Critical Study of Abdullah el-Faisal]
* [http://www.themuslimweekly.com/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=1B468CB93AAA89EB793AFB6B&MENUID=HOMENEWS&DESCRIPTION=UK%20News Preacher al-Faisal finally deported]
* [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070526T160000-0500_123546_OBS_DEPORTED_CLERIC_TO_PREACH_HERE_.asp Deported cleric to preach here]
* [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070526T160000-0500_123547_OBS_EL_FAISAL_WANTS_MOM_TO_MEET_WIFE_AND_KIDS__SAYS_FRIEND__.asp El-Faisal wants mom to meet wife and kids]
* [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070526T000000-0500_123485_OBS_DEPORTED_ISLAMIC_CLERIC_BACK_IN_JAMAICA__.asp Deported Islamic cleric back in Jamaica ]
* [http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/judgmentsfiles/j2352/regina-v-el-faisal.htm Royal Court of Justice Documentation - Judgment on Abdullah el-Faisal]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2088332,00.html Race hate preacher Faisal deported]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6691701.stm Race hate cleric faisal deported]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2829059.stm BBC: Hate preaching cleric jailed.]
* [http://www.themuslimweekly.com/fullstoryview.aspx?NewsID=73EF33F075EFC6BC58DACB43&MENUID=HOMENEWS&DESCRIPTION=UK%20News ‘Sheikh’ Faisal vows to Islamise Jamaica]
* [http://www.salafimanhaj.com/pdf/SalafiManhaj_MufteeOfJamaica The Mufti of Jamaica]