Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this article.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6818794.ece
“Airline bomb plot: mosque has been recruiting ground for 20 years
Sean O’Neill, Crime and Security Editor
SNIPPET: “The mosque frequented by key members of the airline plot terror cell has been a recruiting ground for Islamist extremists for more than 20 years, The Times can reveal.
The Queen’s Road mosque in Walthamstow, East London, was a regular place of worship and meeting place for central figures from the group.
Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the cell leader, prayed there and met with his associates including Waheed Zaman, who lived opposite.
The mosque is currently under the control of Tablighi Jamaat, an ultraorthodox Islamic sect which preaches that Muslims should replicate the life of Muhammad and tells them it is their duty to travel the world converting non-believers to the one true faith.”
Note: The article in post no. 15 is dated September 7, 2009.
Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2335895/posts
Ringleader of Airline Plot Dreamed of Jihad Since His Teens
Guardian ^ | Vikram Dodd and Jo Adetunji
Posted on September 9, 2009 5:03:07 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Like other Britons convicted of plotting violence in the name of al-Qaida, there was little to mark Abdulla Ahmed Ali as a potential terrorist.
The UK-based ringleader of the airlines plot had led a life of little note until his conviction for planning to explode bombs on seven transatlantic planes, in Britain’s biggest terrorist conspiracy.
Ali was born in Newham, east London, in 1980 and a year later his parents returned to their native Pakistan before returning to Britain in 1987. He was the fourth of eight children born to parents who had aspirations for their offspring. All bar one brother made it to university.
One of Ali’s brothers works as a probation officer; another has worked for London Underground.
He went to school in Walthamstow, where he met two of his fellow accused, Arafat Khan and Ibrahim Savant, neither of whom were convicted. One source said of Ali that his peers described him as well- read and some thought him charismatic.
He would boast in his martyrdom video of dreaming of giving his life to jihad since the age of 16. While at school he came into contact with the Islamic missionary group, Tablighi Jamaat, which he described in court as “boy scouts in a religious environment”. The group denies encouraging extremism and stresses it is purely peaceful. Ali gained a place at City University, London, where he graduated with a degree in computer systems engineering in September 2002. He struggled to hold down a job and had a couple of part time jobs.
He began working for the Islamic Medical Association charity with his older brother, Dawood, and Ibrahim Savant. In late 2002 Ali travelled to Pakistan, he said, to help refugees fleeing the US attack on the Taliban at refugee camps on the Afghan border.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...