A Muslim cleric who urged his followers to kill Hindus, Jews and Americans was convicted Monday of inciting others to commit murder and stirring up racial hatred.
Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born convert to Islam, preached across Britain and sold Arabic-language tapes of his speeches in specialist shops.
El-Faisal, 39, who studied religion in Guyana and Saudi Arabia, denied that his recordings were abusive or threatening and insisted he was interpreting and updating the words of the Quran.
But prosecutor David Perry said the preacher was hiding behind a "cloak of religion" to mask his hatred of "nonbelievers."
A jury at London's Old Bailey criminal court found el-Faisal guilty of three charges of soliciting murder and three charges of incitement of racial hatred.
Sentencing was set for March 7, when the father of three could receive a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The case is the first prosecution in more than a century under the 1861 Offenses against the Person Act of soliciting murder against persons unknown.
El-Faisal was arrested in February last year and held in custody for six months before being released on bail. His lawyers argued that he was a respected cleric whose quotations from scripture have been taken out of context.
During the trial, the jury was shown a video of el-Faisal addressing a study group not long after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In it he says it is the duty of Muslim women to bring up their sons "with a Jihad (holy war) mentality not to be wimps."
"Boys should train as soldiers for Islam from the age of 15. Is it sensible for you to be soldiers without Kalashnikov training?" he said in the recording. "Even if you are hit by a cruise missile, the pain will feel like that of a mosquito bite."
Prosecutors said el-Faisal addressed young, impressionable Muslims "from a position of authority" and was a "fanatic and extremist." Perry said he encouraged British Muslims to attend terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
"You have to learn to fly planes, drive tanks and you have to learn how to load your guns and to use missiles," el-Faisal said in one recording. He also promised that those who died during a holy war would not feel pain and would go to heaven, where they would be given 72 virgins.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist squad, welcomed the verdict.
"This case was nothing to do with freedom of speech, but everything to do with racial hatred and religious bigotry, and encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism," he said outside court.