Imam gets nine years' jail for race-hate speeches

A Muslim cleric convicted of inciting his followers to murder Jews, Americans and Hindus was jailed yesterday for nine years for "fanning the flames" of racial hatred.

Abdullah el-Faisal, a 39-year-old imam based at mosques in north London, was told he had endangered the right of people to live and worship in safety through his talks to Islamic "study circles" across Britain. The cleric sold recordings of his speeches – with titles including "Jihad" and "No Peace with the Jews", in which he called for kuffars, or unbelievers, to be killed, and for young Muslims to wage a holy war abroad – in Islamic bookshops across Britain after the 11 September attacks.

Judge Beaumont said: "You had a responsibility to the young of the [Muslim] community at times of conflict abroad and tensions here. Instead of calming fears, you fanned the flames of hostility. To me, it rang hollow to hear you say that none of the young men to who you preached went to fight in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya. No one, least of all you, will ever know."

Faisal, who has three children, was found guilty last month of three charges of soliciting murder and three counts of inciting racial hatred. He was ordered to serve seven years for soliciting murder and two years for other offences consecutively.

The judge recommended that Faisal, from Stratford, east London, be deported to his native Jamaica, from where he arrived in 1991, at the end of his jail term. Lawyers are considering an appeal against the length of sentence.