afrol News, 11 January - The controversial Muslim Clergyman, Abdullah el-Faisal, deported last week by Kenyan authorities to Gambian is back in the country after airlines refused to transport him, Muslim human rights officials have said in a statement.

Reports in Kenya said Mr el Faisal had flown from Kenya to Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday, where he was scheduled to board a flight to Gambia. He was however rejected by airlines in Nigeria.

Muslim Human Rights Forum said the preacher landed in Kenya on Sunday morning.

It was the second time Kenya had tried unsuccessfully to deport the cleric arrested a week ago in Kenya’s port of Mombasa.

The Kenyan authorities said Mr Faisal’s history of radical statements and connections with convicted terrorists made him a threat to Kenya’s security.

Muslim leaders and human rights activists have reportedly spotted Mr Faisal on Sunday at the Industrial Area Prison in the capital Nairobi.

The British government said Mr el-Faisal's teachings had influenced one of the bombers who carried out the 2005 transport network bombings in London that killed 52 people.

South Africa and Britain had declined to grant him transit visas after his deportation orders were made by Kenyan Immigration authorities. Tanzania also declined to grant him a visa despite the fact he had entered Kenya from Tanzania.

The officials said Mr el-Faisal had traveled to Kenya from Nigeria through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique and Tanzania. The official further said it was likely Mr el-Faisal traveled into Kenya by road to avoid detection since he is on an international watch list.

Mr El-Faisal preached at London's Brixton mosque in the 1990s before being ejected by the mosque authorities because of his support for violent jihad. The mosque was attended at different times by Richard Reid, who is serving a life sentence in a US prison after a failed 2001 attempt to blow up an airplane, and convicted September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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