The 'very English' London terrorist

The suspected ringleader of the July 7 bombings spent years trying to shake off his Pakistani-Muslim identity, and was anxious to present himself as Westernised, says a documentary made for BBC radio.

Mohammed Sidique Khan, known as Sid, dreamed of going to America, displayed minimal interest in Islam and was "very English", said friends interviewed for the programme.

Khan was ostracised by his family after taking a Hindu wife, Hasina, and further evidence that he was indifferent to the Muslim faith for much of his life is provided by his friends who told the documentary-makers he had no interest in attending the mosque.

Rob Cardiss, a school friend, was quoted in the documentary Biography of a Bomber as saying Khan "seemed to have more white friends than Asian friends [and] used to hang around with white lads playing football".

Cardiss said: "He was very English. Some of the other Pakistani guys used to talk about Muslim suffering around the world but with Sidique you'd never really know what religion he was from."

Khan's one-time best friend has talked about how Khan's decision to marry had huge ramifications for him.

"His family wanted nothing to do with him after that. How can someone who has been prepared to go through all that then explode a bomb in the name of Islam?" he asked.

Khan's rapid radicalisation came in adulthood, when he became friendly with a group of radicals from Leeds and Huddersfield, the associates suggest.

He was influenced by watching videos with them in the "backrooms of Yorkshire" rather than through the influence of radical figures he met at the mosque.

In the months before Khan detonated the Edgware Rd bomb, killing himself and six others, the group often watched violent videos depicting Muslim suffering around the world and going out on paint-balling trips immediately afterwards.

A former member of the group, known as Khalid, said: "Before we would leave the house, there would sometimes be a video reflecting what's happening in Palestine or Chechnya or other places where Muslims were affected.

"Looking back on it now, I do find it a bit weird that we had such a viewing. I can see why some youth would be affected by this - they get fired up, they get stirred up - and having the airing of that video might not have been in the best interests of certain people.

"Mohammad Sidique Khan was there but someone else was introducing the videos."

Other Yorkshire Muslims say Khan's tight-knit group went by the name "The Mullah Crew" and inveigled their way into the youth community by helping Muslims off alcohol and drug addiction.

Germaine Lindsay, the Kings Cross bomber, joined the trips, said Khalid. Other locals have told how Shahzad Tanweer was also in the group.

"I heard it frequently that he was going overseas for military training," said Khalid. "I heard it from a very sound source. I don't know why he was prepared to let people know what he was doing."

The findings of the documentary reveal Khan's videoed last statement to be full of contradictions.

In the video, broadcast in full for the first time this week, he poured scorn on the Westernisation of British Muslims and accused Muslim community leaders of being "content with their Toyotas and their semi-detached houses".

He said: "Jihad is an obligation on every single one of us, men and women, and by staying at home you are turning your backs on jihad, which is a major sin.

"Our so-called scholars today are content with their Toyotas and their semi-detached houses.

"They tell us ludicrous things like 'you must obey the law of the land'. How on earth did we conquer lands in the past if we were to obey by this law? By Allah, these scholars will be brought to account."

- INDEPENDENT