Abdullah el-Faisal

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Jamaican English Template:Infobox criminal Abdullah el-Faisal (born Trevor William Forrest, also known as Abdullah al-Faisal, Sheikh Faisal, Sheik Faisal, and Imam Al-Jamaikee, born 10 September 1963<ref name=int />) is a Jamaican Muslim cleric who preached in the United Kingdom until he was convicted of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to murder Jews, Hindus, Christians, Americans and other "unbelievers".<ref name=royal/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="BBC03" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

El-Faisal was sentenced to nine years in prison, of which he served four years before being deported to Jamaica in 2007.<ref name = "BBC03"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He subsequently traveled to Africa, but was deported from Botswana in 2009 and from Kenya back to Jamaica in January 2010.

In 2020, El-Faisal was extradited to New York City after being arrested in Jamaica in 2017. He was subsequently convicted in January 2023 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on counts including soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early life

El-Faisal was born in Saint James Parish to an evangelical Christian family which belonged to the Salvation Army church, a Christian denomination.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Gleaner">Template:Cite web </ref> He grew up in the small farming village of Point, about Template:Convert from the city of Montego Bay, in upper St. James, Jamaica.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He attended Springfield All-Age, then Maldon Primary and Junior High. At age 16, he converted to Islam,<ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Postcolonial melancholia, p. 130, Paul Gilroy, Columbia University Press, 2005, Template:ISBN. Retrieved 9 January 2010.</ref> after being introduced to the religion by a teacher at Maldon High School.<ref name = "Gleaner" />

He began using the name Abdullah el-Faisal shortly after graduating Maldon in 1980, and changed it legally in 1983.<ref name=int /> In 1981, in Trinidad, he took a six-week course in Islamic and Arabic studies sponsored by the Saudi Arabian government.<ref name=int /> He left Jamaica in 1983 for Guyana where he studied Arabic and Islam for a year. Starting in 1984, El-Faisal studied Islam for seven years on a Saudi government scholarship at the Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He then moved to the UK later in the 1980s.<ref name="int" /><ref name="royal" /><ref name="Gleaner" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

England: 1991–2003

El-Faisal was sent to the United Kingdom to preach by Sheikh Raji. He returned to the UK in 1991, became the imam at the Brixton Mosque in South London,<ref name="telegraph2003">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> began preaching to crowds of up to 500 people at the mosque and at Brixton Town Hall.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He married his second wife, Pakistani-British biology graduate Zubeida Khan whom he met months after his arrival, in 1992, thereby acquiring rights of residence.<ref name=royal/><ref name="timesonline2003">Lister, Sam, "Bloodcurdling brand of hatred taken on tour of Britain," The Times, 25 February 2003. Retrieved 24 January 2010</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Telegraph07">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This meant he had two wives, as his first marriage was still extant.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1993, el-Faisal was ejected by Brixton Mosque's administration who objected to his radical preaching.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Afterward, he gave a lecture he called The Devil's Deception of the Saudi Salafis, where he attacked the Brixton Mosque management on the basis of their alleged subservience to the corrupt rulers of Saudi Arabia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He opened a study center in Tower Hamlets, East London.<ref name="telegraph2003"/>

Referred to as "Sheikh" by his followers,<ref name = "BBC03" /> el-Faisal travelled and lectured to audiences in mosques in Birmingham, London, and Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, and in Manchester, Worthing, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Swansea, Coventry, Maidenhead, Tipton, Beeston, and venues in Scotland and Wales.<ref name=royal/><ref name = "Guardian" /><ref name="timesonline2003"/><ref>"British imam praises London Tube bombers", The Sunday Times, 12 February 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2010.</ref><ref>Waldman, Amy, "A Nation Challenged: Muslims; How in a Little English Town Jihad Found Young Converts," The New York Times, 24 April 2002. Retrieved 24 January 2010.</ref> Some of his lectures were taped and sold at Islamic bookshops.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also called on Muslim mothers to raise their children to be jihad soldiers by the age of 15.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The content of those taped lectures served as the basis for his later trial and conviction.<ref name=royal/>

In February 2002, El-Faisal's tapes were purchased by an undercover police officer at an Islamic bookshop at 62 Brick Lane in London and seized under a search warrant at Zam Zam Bookshop at 388 Green Street in East Ham and at his home at 104 Albert Square in Stratford.<ref name=royal/> He was arrested on 18 February 2002.<ref name=royal/>

El-Faisal is an associate of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the Egyptian ousted from the Finsbury Park mosque who is known for preaching against non-Muslims, and who is currently incarcerated in the United States for various offenses.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Dead link</ref> El-Faisal is reportedly a former supporter of Osama bin Laden, and has been linked to al-Qaeda members.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Conviction and imprisonment: 2003–07

Conviction

After a four-week trial at the Old Bailey, el-Faisal was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women on 24 February 2003 of: (a) three charges of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, Hindus, and Christians; and (b) two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred, in tapes of speeches to his followers.<ref name=royal/> He was the first Muslim cleric to be tried in the UK.<ref name="BBC03">Template:Cite news</ref>

Taped lectures

In tapes of lectures he had given, he exhorted Muslim women to buy toy guns for their children, to train them for jihad.<ref name=royal/> El-Faisal tried to recruit British schoolboys for Jihad training camps, promising them "seventy-two virgins in paradise" if they died fighting a holy war. El-Faisal said "Those who want to go to Jannah [paradise], it's easy, just kill a Kaffar [unbeliever] ... by killing that Kaffar you have purchased your ticket to paradise."<ref name=royal/> He suggested killing non-Muslims like "cockroaches."<ref>Johnston, Philip, "7 July preacher Abdullah El-Faisal deported," The Telegraph, 25 May 2007. Retrieved 21 January 2010.</ref>

On one tape, titled "Jihad", he said: "Our methodology is the bullet, not the ballot."<ref name=royal/> In a tape called "Rules of Jihad", thought to have been made before the 9/11 attacks, he said: "You have to learn how to shoot. You have to learn how to fly planes, drive tanks, and you have to learn how to load your guns and to use missiles. You are only allowed to use nuclear weapons in that country which is 100% unbelievers." He encouraged the use of "anything, even chemical weapons," to "exterminate non-believers."<ref name=royal/> A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the cover of one recording.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

He lectured: "You can go to India, and if you see a Hindu walking down the road you are allowed to kill him and take his money, is that clear, because there is no peace treaty between us."<ref name=royal/> He also suggested that power plants could use the dead bodies of Hindus as fuel.<ref name="guardian.co.uk">Attewill, Fred, "Race hate preacher Faisal deported," The Guardian, 25 May 2007. Retrieved 6 January 2009</ref> "Jews," el-Faisal said, "should be killed ... as by Hitler." He said: "People with British passports, if you fly into Israel, it is easy. Fly into Israel and do whatever you can. If you die, you are up in paradise. How do you fight a Jew? You kill a Jew. In the case of Hindus, by bombing their businesses."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the trial, he denied he had intended to incite people to violence. He also testified that he had held Osama bin Laden in "great respect," but that bin Laden had "lost the path" since 11 September.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sentencing and appeal

El-Faisal was sentenced on 7 March 2003 to nine years in prison.<ref>Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, p. 235, Olivier Roy, Columbia University Press, 2006, Template:ISBN. Retrieved 9 January 2010.</ref> He received seven years for soliciting murder, 12 months to run concurrently for using threatening words with intent to stir up racial hatred, and a further two years (to run consecutively) for distributing threatening recordings with intent to stir up racial hatred. Old Bailey judge Peter Beaumont delivered the sentence. He said el-Faisal had "fanned the flames of hostility", and told him: "As the jury found, you not only preached hate, but the words you uttered in those meetings were recorded to reach a wider audience. You urged those who listened and watched to kill those who did not share your faith."<ref name="BBC03" /> The judge suggested that el-Faisal serve at least half his sentence, and then be deported.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On 17 February 2004, el-Faisal lost an appeal of his conviction.<ref name=royal/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While in prison, he attempted to improve conditions, saying: "if you're a cleric, you have to set an example for other Muslim prisoners to follow, and you're not supposed to crack under pressure."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He ended up serving four years.

Followers: 9/11 plotter, Richard Reid, 7/7 and Flight 253 bombers

Prosecutors said he preached to 2001 shoe bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui.<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/>

In addition, two of the four accused 2005 7/7 suicide bombers, Muhammad Sidique Khan, responsible for the Edgware Road blast that killed 6 people, and Jamaican-born Briton Germaine Lindsay, responsible for the blast that killed 26 people at King's Cross tube station, were followers of El-Faisal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In an interview with the BBC in June 2008, he admitted knowing Germaine Lindsay but insisted he had not radicalized him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In a May 2005 online posting under the name "farouk1986," Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspected Christmas Day 2009 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)."<ref>Schmitt, Eric, and Lipton, Eric, "Focus on Internet Imams as Al Qaeda Recruiters," The New York Times, 31 December 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2010</ref>

Deportations from the UK, Botswana, and Kenya: May 2007–present

Upon being eligible for parole, el-Faisal was released from prison, deported to Jamaica, and permanently banned from the UK on 25 May 2007. He remained on an international watch list.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Andrew Dismore, a Labour Member of Parliament, noted that deportation might not adequately address the risks posed by el-Faisal, saying: "Once he's deported to Jamaica, what restrictions will there be to prevent him spreading his message of hate over the Internet?"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was said to preach extremists views online at paltalk chat rooms and associated with the authentic tawheed website.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On his arrival in Jamaica, the Islamic Council of Jamaica refused him permission to preach in its mosques.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He began to again give lectures, conduct Q & A sessions via online chats, and established himself at the pulpit of a mosque in Spanish Town, just west of Kingston, Jamaica. The content of his sermons remained the same as that submitted at his trial.<ref>"(Backgrounder) Abdullah al-Faisal: Extremist Ideologue with Influence in the West", The NEFA Foundation, October 2009. Retrieved 22 January 2010 Template:Webarchive</ref>

In June 2008, he was preaching in South Africa.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He reportedly traveled by road through various countries in Africa including Nigeria, Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana, and Tanzania before entering Kenya.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Along the way, Botswana had deported him as a prohibited immigrant.<ref>Template:Cite web Template:Dead link</ref>

Kenya

El-Faisal was allowed entry to Kenya on 24 December 2009, due to a computer error. He was arrested by anti-terror police in Mombasa on New Year's Eve 2009. Attempts by Kenya to deport him were initially unsuccessful because of his involvement in terrorist activities. He was unable to reach Jamaica, which had said it would accept him, because South Africa, the UK, the US, and Tanzania all declined to issue him transit visas that would allow him to connect to flights to Jamaica.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was deported from Kenya on 7 January 2010 to the West African nation of Gambia, which agreed to accept el-Faisal at his request.<ref name="Observer">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Pictures: Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal, The Daily Nation, published and retrieved 7 January 2009</ref> But as he was being transported through Nigeria, Nigerian authorities refused to grant him a transit visa and instead sent him back to Kenya on 10 January 2010.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Kyama, Reuben, "Airlines Refuse to Transport Radical Cleric", The New York Times, 10 January 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2010</ref> The Gambian government also indicated it would not grant him entry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Several hundred people demonstrated on 8 January 2010, protesting the "unfair" treatment of el-Faisal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 15 January, police in Nairobi were summoned to block a protest march by several hundred people, some of whom were waving the flag of al Shabaab. Some angry residents threw stones at the marchers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The following day at least five people died in demonstrations after Friday prayers at Jami'a Mosque.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Jamaica

El-Faisal was deported from Kenya on a private plane (at a cost in excess of $523,000), and on 22 January 2010 arrived back in Jamaica.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> There, he was questioned by Special Branch investigators who said that he had not broken any laws in Jamaica, but that the police wanted to make sure they knew where and how to find him "because of the international attention he has received."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Islamic Council of Jamaica banned him from preaching at any of its 12 mosques, but he was permitted to worship there.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2017, he continued releasing public statements in support of the Islamic State.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In his book Ticking Time Bomb: Counter-Terrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack (2011), former US Senator Joe Lieberman described Australian Muslim preacher Feiz Mohammad, American-Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki, el-Faisal, and Pakistani-American Samir Khan as "virtual spiritual sanctioners" who use the Internet to offer religious justification for terrorism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Conviction and imprisonment: 2017–23

On 25 August 2017, he was arrested in Jamaica after US officers caught him trying to recruit jihadis in an undercover sting operation. According to the Manhattan district attorney, he offered to help an undercover officer travel to the Middle East and join ISIL, and was taken into custody in Jamaica to await extradition to the US.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In July 2020, Jamaica's Court of Appeal ruled the extradition to the US could proceed. Faisal was extradited on 13 August 2020. The New York City district attorney assumed prosecution of the case, with five charges of terrorism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to a Washington Post report, Faisal was held in "lockdown", confined for 2 hours a day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 23 March 2023, Faisal was convicted, after a two-month long jury trial, of recruiting, soliciting, and inspiring students and followers to pledge allegiance to, travel to, join and commit acts of terrorism on behalf of the Islamic State, a/k/a “ISIS” or “ISIL.” He was sentenced to 18 years in a New York state prison.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Book

Natural Instincts: Islamic Psychology, Darul Islam Publishers, 1997. Template:ISBN.

References

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External links

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