Three terror suspects were Islam converts

AT least three of the men arrested on suspicion of plotting to blow up a series of transatlantic flights were converts to Islam, it emerged yesterday.

One, Ibrahim Savant, from Walthamstow, east London, changed his name from Oliver when he became a Muslim, according to neighbours.

The 25-year-old student, whose Muslim wife is reportedly pregnant, was arrested at his parents’ home in Folkestone Road.

He is believed to have taken his Iranian father’s name when he converted and immersed himself in religious books.

The second convert was called Don Stewart-Whyte until he changed his name to Adbul Waheed after converting to Islam about six months ago. He was arrested during a raid on a house in Hepplewhite Close, High Wycombe.

According to locals, the property belonged to a white man whose behaviour altered when he took up the religion.

He apparently turned away from drink and immersed himself in religion.

“He converted to Islam about six months ago and grew a full beard,” an 18-year-old local resident, who asked not to be named, explained.

The third suspect believed to have converted is 28-year-old Umar Islam who was also arrested in High Wycombe.

Islam was listed at his parents’ address in Chairborough Road until 2003.

He is understood to have changed his name from Brian Young and married a Muslim woman with whom he now has a young child.

Islam’s mother, Sylvia Young, reacted with shock and surprise when asked about her son’s arrest.

Ms Young said: “I don’t even believe it.”

Next door neighbour Parkhash Dhanjal, 62, said the Youngs were a West Indian family.

She added: “In my heart I don’t think this boy is bad. He is a nice boy.”

Another of the suspects, Assad Sarwar, 26, was arrested at his family’s three-bedroom semi-detached ex-council house in Walton Drive, High Wycombe.

Locals said a family with three sons and two daughters had lived in the house for the past 15 years.

Sarwar, who was married, was thought to live there with his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law. A third brother had moved out.

Former friends said the men used to be well known in the area, but had not been seen very much in recent years.

Sarwar attended a nearby Muslim Education Centre on Totteridge Drive where there is a prayer room and bookshop but locals said it was unlikely he was radicalised there.

Other named suspects include Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, of Walthamstow; Cossor Ali, 23, also of Walthamstow; Nabeel Hussain, 22, of Chingford, east London; Tanvir Hussain, 25, of Leyton, east London; Umair Hussain, 24, of Poplar, east London; Assan Abdullah Khan, 21, of Walthamstow; Whaeed Arafat Khan, 25, of Walthamstow; Osman Adam Khatib, 19, also of Walthamstow and Shamin Mohammed Uddin, 35, of Stoke Newington.

Other suspects

The other suspects include a man who worked at Heathrow as a security guard and a student Muslim leader.

* Amin Asmin Tariq, 23, was about to set off for work at London’s main airport when he was arrested at his terraced home in Ravenswood Road, Walthamstow.

He had recently become a father and had worked at the airport for the past three years.

* Waheed Zaman, 22, was arrested when officers burst into his family home in Queens Road, Walthamstow. The biochemistry student was known to be a devout Muslim who was head of the Islamic Society at the Metropolitan University in London. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, described Zaman as a “good guy”.

* The youngest of the suspects is 17-year-old Abdul Muneem Patel, who was seized in the Clapton area of London.

* Muhammed Usman Saddique, 24, was at his family home in Albert Road, Walthamstow, when police raided the terraced home.

* In Birmingham, two properties linked to the family of 22-year-old suspect Tayib Rauf were raided by police.

It is thought the Rauf family home in St Margarets Road, in the Ward area of the city, was used to hold lessons on the Koran.

* Shazad Khuram Ali, 27 was arrested in High Wycombe, the town which was home to a number of other suspects.

Neighbours said the family did not interact much with neighbours.

* At another High Wycombe address, a semi-detached house in Plomer Green Avenue, Waseem Kayani, 29, was arrested.

Neighbour Brian Ashby, 41, said the Kayani family, who have a number of daughters, were “one of the quietest in the neighbourhood”.