Abdullah el-Faisal was born on Trevor William Forrest, known as Abdullah al-Faisal, Sheikh Faisal, Sheik Faisal, and Imam Al-Jamaikee, born 10 September 1963 and 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".
21 Facts About Abdullah el-Faisal
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Abdullah el-Faisal subsequently traveled to Africa, but was deported from Botswana in 2009 and from Kenya back to Jamaica in January 2010.
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Abdullah el-Faisal was convicted in January 2023 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on counts including soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism.
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Abdullah el-Faisal grew up in the small farming village of Point, about 14 miles from the city of Montego Bay, in upper St James, Jamaica.
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Abdullah el-Faisal attended Springfield All-Age, then Maldon Primary and Junior High.
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Abdullah el-Faisal began using the name Abdullah el-Faisal shortly after graduating Maldon in 1980, and changed it legally in 1983.
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Abdullah el-Faisal left Jamaica in 1983 for Guyana where he studied Arabic and Islam for a year.
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Abdullah el-Faisal then moved to the UK later in the 1980s.
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Abdullah el-Faisal returned to the UK in 1991, became the imam at the Brixton Mosque in South London, began preaching to crowds of up to 500 people at the mosque and at Brixton Town Hall.
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Abdullah el-Faisal married his second wife, Pakistani-British biology graduate Zubeida Khan whom he met months after his arrival, in 1992, thereby acquiring rights of residence.
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In 1993, Abdullah el-Faisal was ejected by Brixton Mosque's administration who objected to his radical preaching.
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Abdullah el-Faisal opened a study center in Tower Hamlets, East London.
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Abdullah el-Faisal called on Muslim mothers to raise their children to be jihad soldiers by the age of 15.
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Abdullah el-Faisal was the first Muslim cleric to be tried in the UK.
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Abdullah el-Faisal 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 for distributing threatening recordings with intent to stir up racial hatred.
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On 17 February 2004, Abdullah el-Faisal lost an appeal of his conviction.
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Abdullah el-Faisal reportedly traveled by road through various countries in Africa including Nigeria, Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana, and Tanzania before entering Kenya.
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Abdullah el-Faisal was arrested by anti-terror police in Mombasa on New Year's Eve 2009.
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Abdullah el-Faisal 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.
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Abdullah el-Faisal was deported from Kenya on 7 January 2010 to the West African nation of Gambia, which agreed to accept el-Faisal at his request.
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Abdullah el-Faisal was deported from Kenya on a private plane, and on 22 January 2010 arrived back in Jamaica.