Author: Vikram Dodd, Jeevan Vasagar
and Tania Branigan
Publication: The Guardian,UK
Date: May 2, 2003
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,947835,00.html
They were model sons, according
to friends and family, who turned into men capable of inflicting murder
and carnage. Yesterday, as the wounded from the Tel Aviv bar attack recovered
in hospital, families in Derby and west London were coming to terms with
the men's journey from anonymity to notoriety.
Asif Mohammed Hanif, who died in
the attack, was born in India and was the second youngest of four brothers.
His brother Taz said: "He was just a big teddy bear, that's what people
said about him."
Gentle and polite were the descriptions
of neighbours about the 21-year-old reported to have killed himself and
others in the name of Islamic extremism.
Mohammed Hashmi, 53, a neighbour
and the cleric at Hounslow's main mosque for 12 years until 1994, said:
"As I know him, he was honourable and very polite and I never heard about
any kind of politics from him."
It emerged last night that Hanif
worked part-time at an "air side" duty free shop at Heathrow airport between
1998 and 2000 in terminal three, starting when he was 16.
BAA Heathrow said that he had been
employed by Alpha Retail, an outside contractor and had the normal security
ID card airside workers are given. A spokesman said that there was no suggestion
at the time that Hanif constituted a risk, and the news would not prompt
a security review.
At the same time he was a student
at Cranford community college in nearby Hounslow where he studied business
and performed well, his former head said.
He had a growing interest in Islam,
but it was strictly peaceful, said his friend Asif, as he visited the Hounslow
mosque where Mr Hanif was well known. "Our name for him was huggy bear,"
he said.
Far from advocating violence in
the pursuit of Islamic causes, he was opposed to it, the friend said: "This
is why we're all pulling our hair out, this is totally out of character.
He hated movements like al-Muhajiroun and Hizb-ut-Tahrir."
The friends, as others who knew
Mr Hanif, rubbished a report claiming he had handed out political leaflets,
saying he had laughed at those leafleting the mosque with hardline propaganda.
On the mosque's noticeboard is evidence of a battle being fought by those
who run it. Notices say the extreme group Hizb-ut-Tahrir is banned, and
anyone wanting to address the faithful must have prior permission.
Modest
The friend said Mr Hanif had travelled
to Morocco in search of a
greater understanding of his faith,
before going to study in Damascus. As well as learning Arabic, he wanted
to study fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence, as part of his attempt to be a hafiz,
a protector of the Islamic faith.
Two police officers visited the
modest family home yesterday. The family stayed out of sight, but a friend
who emerged summed up the mood: "This does not add up, knowing the person
he was. I still believe he is alive."
Omar Khan Sharif's family also went
to ground yesterday. His late father, Mohammed Sharif, was an entrepreneur
who opened the first kebab shop in the East Midlands town and also owned
a laundrette and amusement arcades.
A neighbour recalled Mr Sharif as
a polite child who would cross the road to open the gate for her when she
drove home from work. The mother of the would-be suicide bomber has passed
away.
Mr Sharif's father educated all
his children privately, sending his youngest to Foremark Hall, the £12,000-a-year
prep school for Repton, a public school near Derby. Mr Sharif went to Foremark
Hall for two years, but did not go on to Repton, instead studying at another
local school.
In autumn 2001 Mr Sharif began an
undergraduate degree in multimedia information systems at Kingston University,
London, but dropped out after a few months. He returned home with a bride
who is believed to come from a Middle Eastern country. Some noticed a change.
When he returned to Derby, where
he bought a terraced house around the corner from his parents' home and
worked in a call centre, he wore Islamic dress and grew a short beard.
A family friend and neighbour, Hamida
Akhtar, said: "I asked him, 'why have you changed? Why are you dressed
like that?' He didn't give an answer, he just started laughing. "I was
surprised. I didn't understand why he had changed, because his whole family
were all westernised. The sisters all wore tights and skirts."
Mr Sharif and his wife had two daughters,
believed to be aged seven and three.
Two Islamist groups, Al-Muhajiroun
and Hizb-ut-Tahrir, are active in Derby, attempting to recruit outside
mosques. Both have been criticised for being publicity seekers whose activities
damage the standing of British Muslims.
Al-Muhajiroun is led by Sheikh Omar
Bakri Muhammad. Although both groups denied knowledge of Mr Sharif, Sheikh
Omar Bakri said: "Muslims cannot condemn the actions of a freedom fighter
who is fighting to liberate his homeland from its occupiers."
The vast majority of British Muslim
opinion condemned the bombings. Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the
Muslim Council of Britain, said: "This act that took place yesterday, if
it is confirmed that they happen to be British Muslims, it's an alarming
development. This is the first time we are seeing British Muslims involved
in acts of such ghastly nature.
"There are fringe elements ... but
let us be absolutely clear, that as far as the Islamic position where such
acts are concerned, a loss of any innocent life is a loss of humanity."
In Israel, security forces were
facing up to dealing with a new terrorist tactic. The attack marked the
first time in 31 months of fighting and 89 suicide attacks that a foreign
national carried out a bombing.
It is believed both Mr Hanif and
Mr Sharif set out from the heavily guarded Gaza Strip. Both were able to
pass from the Gaza Strip to Israel because they carried British passports.
The chairman of the Hounslow mosque,
Suleman Chachia, posed a question being asked in London, Derby and Tel
Aviv. he said: "It makes you wonder why a 21-year-old man living in the
western world who has got everything to live for goes out to another country
and does this kind of thing."
