The neighbor said: “I don’t know him personally but I believe he belongs to a mosque on Leyton High Road. I’ve seen his face many times. I saw him on the news at around 7pm last night and thought ‘this is the guy I know from the mosque.”
However, “worshippers at the Al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton were surprised to learn of Masood’s alleged links with the mosque.”
So the neighbor didn’t know Khalid Masood personally, but knew him well enough to recognize him, and realize when he saw the attacker that he had seen him coming and going from the mosque. The people in the mosque, however, say they didn’t know him. Who is telling the truth? It is impossible to know for sure, but the neighbor has no motive to fabricate a connection between Masood and the mosque, while the mosque has an obvious interest in denying any such connection even if there was one. Moreover, we have seen deception from mosques that jihadis attended before. After a Muslim who supported the Islamic State shot a police officer in Philadelphia, the local mosque leaders initially denied knowing him, but then it turned out they were lying, and the jihadi attended the mosque frequently. The same thing happened after jihadis attacked our free speech event in Garland, Texas: the mosque they attended in Phoenix denied knowing them, but it turned out they were regular members.
This Leyton mosque should be investigated, but it is more likely that its claims about not knowing Masood will be accepted at face value.
“EXCLUSIVE: London terror attacker Khalid Masood, 52, once stabbed a man in the FACE and changed from Kent schoolboy Adrian Elms to maniac who launched car and knife rampage through Westminster,” by Richard Spillett, Martin Robinson and Thomas Burrows, MailOnline, March 23, 2017:
The British-born jihadi who killed four and injured 29 in Westminster was last night revealed to be a middle-aged criminal career who MI5 had investigated in the past and had a previous conviction for stabbing a man in the nose.
English teacher Khalid Masood, 52, a ‘lone wolf’ attacker, who was living in the Birmingham area, had a series of convictions for assault and other crimes….
Masood then moved to Birmingham, although he was also registered as living in a terraced house in West Ham last year.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, told the Press Association: ‘This guy is a local guy. I’ve been living in the area for 20 years.
‘I don’t know him personally but I believe he belongs to a mosque on Leyton High Road.
‘I’ve seen his face many times. I saw him on the news at around 7pm last night and thought ‘this is the guy I know from the mosque.’
‘He had a beard and big eyes.’
Worshippers at the Al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton were surprised to learn of Masood’s alleged links with the mosque.
One, Abdul Abdul, told the Telegraph: ‘We condemn this attack. A true Muslim would never do this. He’s not one of us, he’s not a representative of us’….