Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Jamaica Will Monitor Extremist Muslim Cleric

Jamaica born cleric A Jamaican-born Muslim cleric once jailed in Britain for urging the killing of Americans, Hindus and Jews will be a security concern for his Caribbean homeland when he is deported from Kenya, an official said Monday.

Glenmore Hinds, Jamaica's assistant police chief, said Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal has committed no crime in Jamaica, but will be scrutinized because of his documented history of calling for violence in other nations.

''There isn't a radical Muslim community in Jamaica, but certainly this gentleman has been known to preach radicalization in other countries, so he will be a concern while he is here,'' Hinds said from Kingston in a phone interview.

Earlier Monday, Kenya's immigration minister, Otieno Kajwang, said the East African nation would soon expel el-Faisal to Jamaica for preaching in mosques in violation of his tourist visa. The content of his sermons was not immediately known.

Kajwang said el-Faisal entered Kenya from Tanzania on Dec. 24, but officials did not know at the time that he was on an international watch list because of computer errors.

In 2003, the cleric was sentenced to nine years in Britain after being convicted of incitement to murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews. Upon his parole in 2007, he was deported to Jamaica.

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