Muslim guilty of urging followers to kill

A LONDON-BASED Muslim cleric accused of supporting Osama bin Laden was found guilty yesterday of urging his followers to kill “enemies of Islam” in a holy war against non-believers.

Jamaican-born Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, 39, was convicted of three rare charges of incitement to murder. He was also found guilty of three counts of stirring up racial hatred through the use of threatening and abusive words in person and through video or audio recordings.

Faisal, who was arrested by British anti-terrorist police last year, will be sentenced next week. The charges are punishable by life imprisonment.

During the trial, the court was told Faisal urged his followers to use chemical and nuclear weapons in an Islamic holy war.

"He encouraged his audiences to wage war against non-believers, in particular Hindus, Jews and any citizen of the United States of America," said prosecutor David Perry. Faisal made a series of tapes with names such as "Jihad" and "No Peace with Jews" which were distributed throughout Britain for sale from Islamic book shops.

One of the tapes included a cover picture and the voice of bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida network.

The jury also listened to tapes of lectures given by Faisal around Britain to groups of up to 150 people.

In one tape, he could be heard promising teenage Muslim boys they would be rewarded in paradise with 72 virgins if they died as religious martyrs.

In his defence, Faisal said he only preached what he had learned from the Koran.

He also said that while he once regarded bin Laden as a hero for the Muslim people, he believed bin Laden had "lost the path" since the September 11 attacks.

After the verdict, it emerged Judge Peter Beaumont had almost halted the trial halfway through after an apparent attempt to bribe him.

The judge said he was shown a letter, posted from Scotland, that offered him stg£50,000. The matter has been referred to police but there was no indication Faisal was connected.

Faisal, a former devout Christian, converted to Islam as a teenager and went on to study the Muslim faith in Saudi Arabia.

He moved to Britain in the 1990s and later became Imam of the Brixton Mosque in south London.

Authorities say shoebomber Richard Reid, jailed in the US for attempting to down a transatlantic flight, and accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, now in US custody, met at the mosque. Faisal denied knowing them.

Faisal, who was cleared of three other charges, was convicted under the Offences Against the Persons Act, a rarely invoked 140-year-old law.