Who Is Abdullah el Faisal?

No. 51 Monday, February 08, 2010
Recent deported Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal has received much attention and controversy in many countries over the years, but where did it all started?

    El- Faisal, real name Trevor Williams Forest, son to Merlyn and Lorenzo Forrest, was born in St. James on September 10, 1963.
    He grew up in a Christian family in Point, St. James, but converted to Islam at age 16 after being introduced to it by a teacher at Maldon High School which he attended. After graduating he legally had his name changed to Abdullah el- Faisal.
    He went to Trinidad, in 1981, on a Saudi Arabian government six week crash course in Islamic and Arabic studies, then to Guyana where he further his study for a year and then finally to Saudi Arabia for seven years.
    El- Faisal moved to the United Kingdom in the late 1980's where he preached to a crowd in a Mosque in Brixton Town Hall.
    In the UK, however, he was arrested and charged for soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans, Hindus, and Christians and
two charges of using threatening words to stir up racial hatred. He was sentenced to nine years, but only spent four years where he was deported to Jamaica and banned from returning to the
UK on May 2007.
    El- Faisal left for South Africa in 2008 to preach his religion to the different countries. He passed through countries of Malawi, Angola, Nigeria, Swaziland and finally Kenya on January 24, 2009.
    In Kenya, he was arrested and detained for breaching the terms of his visa which did not allow him to preach. He was deported to Jamaica on January 22 of this year at the expense of Kenya.
    The Muslim Cleric is presently in Jamaica going with his daily life.