Non-Subscriber Extract
Better than cure
05 November 2009
On 7 July 2005, Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorism surfaced in London. Until that point, the world had a perception of such terrorists as the 'evil from without': desperate foreign infiltrators from countries which are not to be found in any package holiday brochure.
People were surprised to discover the London bombers included a teaching assistant from Dewsbury who was married with a beautiful baby daughter, drove a BMW and shopped at Asda. Neighbours of Mohammed Sidique Khan in West Yorkshire had probably nodded to him in passing as they collected their children from his school.
Others will have played football against the Hunslet Hornets Sunday League team that included a midfielder called Hasib Hussain, a 'nice young lad' who was studying for a business qualification to follow in the footsteps of his successful, entrepreneurial Leeds-based brother.
Khan and Hussain, along with fellow bombers Jermaine Lindsay and Shezad Tanweer and other convicted conspirators, were born and socialised in Britain. They were well educated and comfortably off. They had been integrated into a multi-racial, multi-faith and relatively harmonious community. They were our neighbours.