“A young Muslim radicalised in the mosques of metropolitan Britain.” From The Australian, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
SHEHZAD Tanweer, Shazzy to his friends, was a cricket-loving sports science graduate whose father ran the local chip shop.
The Bradford-born 22-year-old who spoke with a broad West Yorkshire accent, boarded an eastbound Circle Line train from London’s Kings Cross station a week ago, where he detonated a bomb, killing at least seven commuters.
Britain’s intelligence agencies were last night coming to terms with something they had long feared, but hoped they would never face – homegrown jihad.
Tanweer is the shocking new face of Islamic terrorism in Britain, the enemy within, a young Muslim radicalised in the mosques of metropolitan Britain rather than the middle-eastern training camps of al-Qa’ida.
The head of Britain’s race relations watchdog, Trevor Phillips, said yesterday the onus was now on Muslim leaders to reassure the public that there was no place in their community or faith for suicide bombers.
Uh-oh. Phillips is suggesting that Muslims might have something to do with suicide bombing? He better watch out before he gets locked up for religious hatred.
And Muslim MP Shahid Malik said: “We have to look within the Muslim community. There is extremism there. We have not done enough to actually deal with that.”
You can say that again, Shahid.
Mr Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said: “I know how difficult and how hateful it is for Muslim leaders to have their motives doubted, but they need to understand that they have to bend over backwards to reassure people. That is their part of the bargain.
Hateful?
“The part of the bargain for people like me and the police is to stop opportunistic and idiotic people turning on Asians and Muslims who really have nothing to do with this.”
If ever there was a family of model immigrants, it was the Tanweers. Originally from Pakistan, they had made a good life in Britain, running their Leeds fish and chip shop and living in a large detached house in the city’s Beeston area, with two Mercedes cars parked outside.
They were a close-knit family of good Muslims, respected in a local multi-ethnic community of whites, Africans, east Europeans, Pakistanis and Bengalis.
But then Shehzad, one of their four children, went missing last week from the family home in Colwyn Road. Police believe that he was not only a victim of last Thursday’s London bombings, but one of the perpetrators. A loving, hard-working family had spawned a suicide bomber, killing innocents in their adopted country that gave them new life and opportunity.
Shehzad had a brother and two sisters, children of the proprietor of South Leeds Fishery, a familiar and respected figure in the Beeston community. The fish shop was open for business on Tuesday but there was no sign of its owner.
What was that again about poverty and desperation?
Mohamed Ansaar Riaz, 19, and Azzy Mohamed, 21, said their friend Shehzad was “the best lad you could ever meet”.
They described how he had grown up in Beeston, studied sports science subjects at university and been a competent all-rounder for a local Asian cricket team. He last played only a fortnight ago.
“He was a sweet guy who gets on with everyone,” Mr Riaz said. “He had a fantastic sense of humour and could make you laugh. He was also a very intelligent person. His family, like other Pakistanis, Bengalis and Iraqis around here, are 100 per cent devoted to the Koran.
100 per cent devoted to the Koran. Well, there you have it.