FAISAL Shazad the Pakistani-American man accused of attempting the failed Times Square bombing has told United States authorities that he was inspired to act by Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal and Anwar al-Awlaki — an American-born imam who has been linked to an al-Qaida group in Yemen.National Public Radio reported that Shahzad, who made his first court appearance yesterday faces five felony charges. He was arrested on May 3 in New York while trying to leave the country by plane.

Al Faisal has been linked to two of the men who blew up trains in Britain in 2005. He was a mentor to a Jamaican convert, Germaine Lindsay, who died in that 2005 suicide bombing. He has also been linked to a terrorism training camp in Oregon, USA several years ago.

He was an imam at the Brixton Mosque in London when Richard Reid, the shoe bomber — also of Jamaican parentage — worshipped there. Zacharias Moussaoui, the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks, was also a follower of his.

Al Faisal was sentenced to prison in the United Kingdom for calling for the killing of Jews, Americans and Hindus in one of his CD lectures. After serving more than four years, he was deported to Jamaica.

Last year he slipped out of the country and ended up in Africa and was deported back here from Kenya earlier this year for allegedly trying to recruit people there for violent Jihad.

He has been placed on an international terrorist watch list as counter-terrorism operatives say his is a powerful voice in the violent Jihadi movement who seem to inspire Muslims to violence.

Jamaican police say they have been keeping a close watch on the activities of the controversial Muslim cleric, who is banned from preaching here.