LONDON, 8 March 2003 — Supporters of a Muslim scholar created uproar at the Old Bailey yesterday, shouting “Allah is the only judge” and punching their fists in the air as their leader was jailed for inciting murder.

Judge Peter Beaumont ordered the public gallery at the central criminal court to be cleared after pandemonium broke out when he sentenced Jamaican-born Abdullah El-Faisal to nine years in jail.

Faisal, a former supporter of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, had been convicted of urging his followers to kill non-believers in a holy war.

“Instead of calming fears you fanned the flames of hostility,” Beaumont told him before the public gallery outburst. “You blatantly set out to stir up racial hatred.”

Jamaican-born Faisal, 39, was convicted last month on three charges of incitement to murder. He was also found guilty then of three counts of stirring up racial hatred through the use of threatening and abusive words, both in person and through recordings.

Faisal, who was also ordered to be deported from Britain on release, was arrested by British anti-terrorist police last year.

During February’s trial, prosecutor David Perry said: “He encouraged his audiences to wage war against non-believers, in particular Hindus, Jews and any citizen of the United States of America.”

Faisal made a series of tapes — with names such as “Jihad” and “No Peace with Jews” — which were distributed throughout Britain for sale in Islamic book shops.

In his defense, Faisal said he only preached what he had learned from the Qur’an.

He also said that while he once regarded Bin Laden as a hero for the Muslim people, he believed the Al-Qaeda leader had “lost the path” since Sept. 11.

After the verdict, it emerged judge Peter Beaumont had almost halted the trial halfway through after an apparent attempt to bribe him with 50,000 pounds ($80,000). The matter has been referred to police but there was no indication Faisal was connected. Faisal, a former devout Christian, converted to Islam as a teenager. He moved to Britain in the 1990s and later became imam of the Brixton Mosque in south London.