Jamaican-born muslim cleric hate

By KAREN MATTHEWS
The Associated Press
Posted: August 27, 2017 at 4:02 a.m.

NEW YORK -- A radical Muslim cleric who was convicted of stirring up racial hatred in Britain was indicted Friday in New York on charges of recruiting potential terrorists.

Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal was arrested in Jamaica, where he had been deported a decade ago.

Jamaica's Ministry of National Security said el-Faisal was arrested in the capital of Kingston and taken to his house in the nearby parish of St. Catherine, where police executed a search warrant. Authorities in Jamaica said el-Faisal is scheduled to appear later in court, although they did not provide a date. He is expected to be extradited to New York after his court appearance in Jamaica.

El-Faisal was arrested after a monthslong sting carried out by an undercover New York Police Department officer who communicated with him by email, text and video chat.

According to the Manhattan district attorney, el-Faisal offered to help the undercover officer travel to the Middle East and join fighters with the Islamic State extremist group.

It's not clear if el-Faisal has an attorney.

The 53-year-old el-Faisal was born Trevor William Forrest in Jamaica.

U.S. authorities had long been concerned about him, fearing that he would emerge as a recruiter of marginalized, disaffected youth in Jamaica.

Born to Christian parents, he converted to Islam as a teenager and later left Jamaica for religious study. He preached in London mosques, delivering sermons that advocated war with Jews, Hindus and other groups and the use of chemical weapons to exterminate nonbelievers.

"The way forward is the bullet," he said in one recorded message.

Those talks got renewed attention after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. In 2003, he was convicted under of a seldom-used British law for inciting murder. After his release from prison in 2007, he was deported to Jamaica. The Islamic Council of Jamaica, which had banned el-Faisal from preaching in the country's mosques because of his inflammatory sermons, said it was not affiliated with el-Faisal and had no information regarding his arrest.

El-Faisal was subsequently ejected from Kenya after a trip there in 2009 because of suspicions of encouraging young men to join an Islamic extremist group in Somalia. He was then deported to Jamaica again in early 2010.

In diplomatic cables, first obtained and released by WikiLeaks, U.S. officials said he or his associates had been linked with several suspected terror plots.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said el-Faisal "has dedicated his life to terror recruitment."

"Through his lectures, website and videos, he incites untold numbers of people around the world to take up the cause of jihad," Vance said. "As is alleged in this case, he provided material support to the Islamic State by facilitating the passage of a self-described [Islamic State] sympathizer from New York to Syria. A charismatic leader, the defendant's rhetoric has been cited by several convicted or suspected terrorists in New York, London and beyond."

A Muslim cleric remains in Nairobi after failed efforts by the government of Kenya to deport him to his home country, Jamaica. The government says he poses a security threat to Kenya. He has been convicted in Britain of preaching violence against non-Muslims.

The government of Kenya sought to have Abdullah el-Faisal flown to the Gambia over the weekend, from where he was to travel on to Jamaica. But he was returned to Nairobi when Nigeria refused to grant him a transit visa.

Activists want el-Faisal released into the custody of the Muslim community until the situation is resolved. His legal team says el-Faisal, who is detained in a Nairobi prison, has committed no crime in Kenya, although he served time in prison in Britain for preaching violence against non-Muslims.

El-Faisal used to preach in the south London neighborhood of Brixton at the same mosque attended by Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a plane in the United States in 2001.

The Kenyan government charges he violated the terms of his tourist visa by preaching while in Kenya.

The chairman of the Muslim Human Rights Forum in Nairobi, al-Amin Kimathi, says el-Faisal has been denied due process and intends to pursue the case to the Kenyan High Court, if necessary.

"The cleric has not been given the benefit of a hearing any valid tribunal or a court of law. There have been allegations bandied about in the media, and when he was arrested he was never charged with any offense; nothing was disclosed about why he was being detained. So far, he has not been accorded the benefit of a reading of the deportation order alleged to have been signed by the minister of immigration for his removal from Kenya," Kimathi said.

The Kenya government says it can detain anyone without explanation for 24 hours.

The government also says that recent legislation gives the immigration minister the authority to deport anyone, a view supported by the vice chair of the Party of National Unity, George Omari Nyamweya.

Nyamweya, a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, says one of the government's mandates is to ensure national security. He says that includes deporting anyone it deems a threat to the state, even if the individual has not committed an act of violence.

"The people who blew up the U.S. embassy [in Nairobi] in 1998 had not previously committed any offense in Kenya. [Recently] there was this person who was on an aircraft bound to [Detroit], he had not committed a previous offense prior to the attempt of blowing up the jet. So [you do not have to] commit an offense first to be barred from a country as a suspected terrorist."

Kimathi says authorities are deporting the cleric because he is on an international terrorist watch list used, among others, by the United States and Britain. Kimathi dismissed the list, saying it lacks U.N. and international legal validation.

Kimathi says the cleric's lawyers will challenge the minister's power to deport el-Faisal.

"The piece of legislation we are talking about is being contested in a court of law. One thing the minister's decision has done is remove the right to appeal his decision. Any ministerial action in Kenya should be subject to judicial review and not stand alone. Whether the minister is empowered by the Immigration Act or not this is something that is reviewable or challengeable in a court of law," Kimathi said.

He says the immigration minister is treating Muslims differently from those of other faiths, a charge the government denies.

"We have it on authority of immigration ministry officials that preachers of any other faiths coming specifically for short-term missions like preaching for a day or two or holding crusades, do not receive work permits but [three-month] tourist visas, like el-Faisal had. And it makes everyone wonder why the double standards, the discriminatory treatment where Muslim clergy [often has] to get work permits for short term visits while the [others do not]," Kimathi said.

Kimathi says the sheik has not been granted visitation rights by legal counsel or by any representative of his family. He says the embassy of Jamaica, his home country, has not contacted him.

Most African airlines do not fly to Jamaica, and several other countries - including the United States, Britain, South Africa, and Tanzania - are refusing to grant el-Faisal a transit visa allowing him to change planes on their soil. Kimathi says a solution may be to fly him to a neutral country, like Switzerland, where he could get a Jamaican airlines plane home.

Kimathi says the international community has an obligation to facilitate his return.

There are mounting concerns in the UK about the planned release and deportation of a Jamaican born Muslim cleric.

The cleric, Sheikh Abdullah-el-Faisal has been linked to last year's bombings of London's transportation system.

It is believed that London bomber, Germaine Lindsay was strongly influenced by Abdullah al-Faisal.

Giving the government's account of the bombings, British home secretary, John Reid, said the Jamaican born Lindsay had listened to tapes of lectures by the cleric.

It is also believed that Lindsay had attended at least one of Abdullah el-Faisal's lectures.

The 42-year-old cleric, who was reportedly born in Jamaica as Trevor William Forest, converted to Islam at age 16.

Despite denying the charges, he was jailed in February 2003 for nine years for soliciting murder, incitement to murder and incitement to racial hatred.

It is also reported that Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal encouraged Muslims to attend training camps so they could wage jihad or holy war on the West.

One British newspaper today reported that el-Faisal encouraged the use of chemical weapons to exterminate non-believers and exhorted Muslim women to buy toy guns for their children to train them for jihad.

El-Faisal's sentence was reduced to seven years after an appeal.

He is now eligible for parole, having served more than half his sentence.

The British Home Office says he will be deported to Jamaica later this year, barring a successful appeal against the decision.

However, the planned deportation has angered some British lawmakers who fear he will continue to disseminate his views particularly through the Internet.

The British lawmakers say they are not convinced that enough restrictions will be in place to prevent him from spreading what they describe as his message of hate over the Internet.

Meanwhile, National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips says the Government will be moving to confirm Sheikh Abdullah-el-Faisal's nationality.

Speaking with RJR News Sunday afternoon, Dr. Phillips said he was not aware of the details of the development but would be moving to get the necessary information.

The National Security Minister also expressed confidence in the ability of local security personnel to monitor extremists.