Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

CONVICTED IN Britain three years ago for inciting racial hatred through his doctrine, Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, a son of Point, St. James, now faces deportation to the land he departed 26 years ago.

The Jamaican Government last week said British authorities have not contacted them about a possible deportation. However, it seems that the Jamaican expatriate will soon be forced to pack his luggage and head home.

The local Islamic community has said they may embrace Sheikh el-Faisal as a brother but that is the furthest they would go if the accusations against him are true.

"If it is true, every Muslim in Jamaica condemns it. We won't associate ourselves with anyone like that," Sheikh Musa Tijani, head of education and Dawah [which means calling people to the religion] at the Islamic Council of Jamaica said.

Sheikh Tijani, however, has asked for Sheikh el-Faisal's side of the story.

The truth

"I want to hear the truth - his side, the other side." Sheikh Tinaji said he has never heard any of 'the brother's terror speeches. He said that what he has to rely on media, largely biased toward Christians, to present information on the case.

"If he said it is true then we are not going to accept him. In fact, we would demand a public apology because what he did was wrong."

Sheikh el-Faisal was convicted on three counts of racial incitement and three of 'soliciting murder' (under a 1861 Offences Against the Person Act) by a unanimous verdict from the jury.

In his preaching, recorded on audio and video cassettes and DVDs, el-Faisal urged, not just pronounced, death and destruction on unbelievers. In one of his tapes, el-Faisal urged Muslim women to "bring up your male children in the jihad mentality."

"So when you buy your toys for your boys you buy tanks and guns and helicopter gunships and so forth. The way forward can never be the ballot. The way forward is the bullet."

"How wonderful it is to kill the Kuffar [unbeliever]. You crawl on his back and while you push him down into hellfire you are going into paradise."

Another of his jihad tape contains the words: "So you 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?"

One local Muslim, Abdul Basear, said he believes Sheikh el-Faisal was "a bit enthusiastic and overzealous."

Basear, however, is not convinced that el-Faisal preached racial hate.

"He might say some things which are not acceptable by other Muslims but he does not preach racial hatred."

Not something bad

Basear said jihad should not be viewed as something bad. He said jihad, which may take many forms, means striving for the pleasure of Allah [God] to empower yourself. This jihad, he said, may be either physical of spiritual.

His argument is not something the British authorities would buy. el-Faisal is said to have influenced at least one terrorist attacker. Richard Reid, the shoe bomber who is of Jamaica descent, is said to have visited mosques where el-Faisal gave speeches. It is also believed that Jamaican-born bomber Germaine Lindsay, a 19-year-old Muslim convert, was influenced by el-Faisal.

Sheikh Tijani has said that the impending deportation of Sheikh el-Faisal will only help the cause of those who have turned the microscope on the religion of Islam.

"This definitely make things more difficult for Muslims. The spotlight is already on us and it is going to get brighter. But we don't have anything to hide. We don't teach our followers to accept terrorist or extremist ideals," Sheikh Tijani told The Sunday Gleaner.

Sheikh el-Faisal was christened 'Trevor William Forrest' and later earned the name 'Dictionary' from his friends because of his tendency to used jaw-cracking words. His parents were Salvation Army officers who introduced him to Christianity. However, at age 16 he left for Saudi Arabia where he traded his early country-boy Christian lifestyle for a combative Islam belief.