UK jails race-hate Muslim cleric
By CNN Producer/Correspondent Jim Boulden
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El-Faisal urged his followers to use chemical and biological weapons.
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- A British judge Friday sentenced Abdullah Ibrahim El-Faisal to nine years in prison after he was convicted of inciting others to commit murder and for stirring racial hatred.
The Muslim cleric was found guilty last week of the rare charge of soliciting murder though there was no evidence that any of his followers carried out his words. He was arrested in February 2002.
Judge Peter Beaumont at the Old Bailey in London said to El-Faisal: "You preached hate and you urged others to kill those who don't share your faith."
El-Faisal has spent the past decade preaching in various mosques and selling audio tapes around Britain.
"So, how do you fight the Hindus? You have to bomb the Indian businesses. And as for the Jews, you kill them physically. Then you will overcome them in Kashmir and in Palestine" was part of one speech captured on audio tape.
His lawyers asked the judge to consider the Muslim convert "misguided rather than malicious."
The defense stressed that most of his preaching's were benign interpretations of the Koran and also that he was a leader in his community.
About a dozen supporters in court gasped when the sentence was read. One shouted "Allah is the only judge."
His lawyers plan to appeal, saying outside the courthouse that the sentence "was on the harsh side."
El-Faisal is not considered a terror suspect and no links to terrorist acts were established in court. But his messages to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans were, in the judge's words: "A boundary crossed. Instead of calming fears, you flamed them. As a cleric you had a responsibility to the young in these times of tensions."
The Jamaican-born 39-year-old husband and father from Stratford in East London will be eligible for parole in four-and-half years, but he will then be subject to deportation.
