A medical student? Doesn’t Tarik Hassane know that poverty causes terrorism? I trust that John Kerry is jetting over to London now to talk to this young man and explain to him how he is misunderstanding Islam. “Dramatic moment anti-terror police arrested medical student dubbed The Surgeon over alleged ISIS-plot to attack Britain – in a flat just yards from scene of raid on 21/7 bombers,” by James Slack, Chris Greenwood and Martin Robinson, Daily Mail, October 8, 2014 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
This is the moment a trainee doctor dubbed ‘The Surgeon’ was arrested on suspicion of planning an Islamic State-related murder plot in London – just a street away from the 2005 raid on the 21/7 bombers.
Neighbours photographed Tarik Hassane, 21, being taken away by police and MI5 officers who swooped on a flat in Dalgarno Gardens, Ladbrooke Grove, West London, yesterday morning.
Officers kicked in the property’s door, threw in three stun grenades and then Tasered Hassane before arresting him at 4.30am.
His arrest will shock the community which nine years ago witnessed 21/7 bombers Muktar Said Ibrahim and Ramzi Mohammed emerging from a flat in neighbouring Delgarno Way.
Their rucksack bombs failed to detonate on the London Tube and bus network and the terrorists were forced to surrender in their underpants after they were surrounded following a week on the run.
There is no suggestion of any links between the 21/7 plot and the suspect held yesterday because Hassane was arrested while staying with a relative after his recent return from medical school in Khartoum, Sudan.
It was revealed today that Hassane had tweeted: ‘Oi lads… I smell war’ shortly before he was arrested.
The medical student is believed to be among four men in their early 20s from London held by Scotland Yard and the security services.
Officials swooped amid heightened fears that fanatics who have returned from Syria are planning a high-profile gun attack or a beheading.
Hassane is nicknamed ‘The Surgeon’ because he is training to become a doctor and was arrested by armed police who rushed his aunt’s flat in North Kensington.
Father-of-three Michael Mwangaa, 32, described seeing a heavy police presence around Princess Alice House on Tuesday morning in the hours after MI5 agents swooped on the council estate.
He said: ‘I heard two or three loud bangs morning at around 5am, but I thought it could have been a gun – I didn’t want to go out and have a look.
‘Then when I was taking my two eldest kids to school we came out and saw all of the police. There was a van full of officers in uniforms, and a lot of undercover cops.
‘They were coming in and out of the estate. A few had bags with them, but they were keeping a low profile.
‘When I found out it was Tarik I was shocked. I couldn’t believe he would want to do something like this’.
Hassane had hoped to study at Kings College hospital in London but failed to get the grades, he admitted online.
Rather than accepting an offer to do biomedicine he decided to become a medical student in Khartoum Sudan checking with the General Medical Council that the qualifications would be accepted in the UK.
On Twitter he posted pictures of his medical text books and said: ‘This makes A Levels look like a joke.
In one post he denied rejecting Kings because it was kufr, a slur meaning non-Islamic.
He says: ‘Got an offer from Kings to do medicine, missed out by a couple grades.
‘Had the choice of doing biomed but that don’t fit in my future plans. Very close friend of mine already completed his first year in Sudan. Checked the uni with the ‘General Medical Council’ and they said a degree from their (sic) is recognised in the uk. So still get to study medicine + it’s recognised world wide + in a Muslim country.’
He also disapproves of women wearing make-up.
In another post he says: ‘Wearing make up outside of the home such as foundation/lip stick etc isn’t really permissible. And it’s better that sisters avoid these things.
‘Covering up has been enjoined upon women for a reason (I.e covering their beauty except for their husbands/in front of their mahrams) so wearing make up kind of defeats the purpose of hijab.
Senior sources said one of the four men was a suspected jihadist, who had recently returned to the UK from Syria….