Abdullah el-Faisal is a radical Islamist cleric who in February 2003, at age 39, was convicted in a British court of soliciting murder and of three charges that involved stirring up racial hatred.

He was sentenced to serve nine years in prison, the first time in more than 100 years in the United Kingdom that a defendant was convicted of “soliciting murder” with no specific victim. The judge in the case also recommended that el-Faisal be deported after his sentence was served.

Tapes of his speeches were widely distributed in England’s Muslim community. Among the titles of these marketed tapes included “Jewish Traits” and “No Peace With the Jews.”

El-Faisal had reportedly preached to Muslim audiences in England “that it was acceptable to murder ‘non-believers’ – including Hindus, Jews and Americans – with chemical weapons.”

“El-Faisal tried to use the Koran to justify his violent and offensive rhetoric,” said  Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the anti-terrorism branch of London’s Metropolitan Police. “The Muslim community are quite rightly appalled by his lectures, which were deliberately targeted at impressionable young people.”

In one lecture to a group of 150 mostly-young boys, el Faisal described how if killed in Jihad against unbelievers such as Jews, they would receive 72 virgins for their pleasure in Paradise. “Even if you are hit by a cruise missile the pain will feel like a mosquito bite,” he told the boys who had come to him seeking spiritual guidance.

El-Faisal was the associate of another radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, also known as Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri, imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque in London. He also reportedly knew James Ujaama, who has been jailed in Seattle on charges of operating an Al Qaeda terrorist training camp in Oregon.

Born in Jamaica and christened Trevor William Forest, el-Faisal is the son of a Salvation Army family of practicing Christians.

He converted to Islam at age 16. El-Faisal is a twice-married father of three.