A recent Bloomberg report states the Gambian government has explicitly denied agreeing to accept a Jamaican-born cleric whom the Kenyan government attempted to deport, saying that any aircraft that brought him to the country would be impounded.
“It’s a lie that Abdullah al-Faisal was accepted by the Gambian government,” Buba Sagnia, acting director-general of immigration in the Gambia, told reporters in the capital, Banjul.
The same cleric was deported from Kenya earlier in January after the government said he had been on a watchlist of people not allowed to visit the country since 2007.
“One person, a Jamaican … How can he make the whole country shut down? One person, how come no one in Jamaica is defending him?” said a witness to protests held recently in Kenya, regarding the local government’s deportation of a cleric who is said to have been deported from Britain for hate speech.
Although Somali refugees were blamed for supporting the cleric in the protests, which turned violent, the Somali extremist group, Al Shabab denies any involvement.
Al Shabab appears to have its own problems with Muslims trying to stop extremism in East Africa. Dozens of people were killed and some 50 others injured after heavy clashes in central Somalia after the proclaimed Ahlu Sunnah wel Jema’a vowed to expel the Wahhabist Al-Shabab from Somalia by taking over their stronghold.
“We will not rest until we make sure that the region, especially Elbur, is free of Al-Shabab. We are prepared to do everything,” said one villager, according to PressTV.
