Mosque leader fears over 'shoe bomb' suspect

The head of the London mosque where alleged ‘‘shoe’’ bomber Richard Reid worshipped today warned that other Muslim youths were in danger of falling prey to extremists.

And Abdul Haqq Baker, 35, chairman of the Brixton mosque, revealed that Reid was thought to have travelled to Pakistan, which was used as a staging post by recruits to Osama bin Laden’s Afghanistan-based al-Qaida terror network.

Reid, 28, also known as Abdel Rahim, was wrestled and tied up by staff and passengers on a Paris to Miami American Airlines flight on Saturday after apparently trying to bring down the plane with explosives in his shoe.

Reportedly a petty criminal with convictions for offences including mugging, Reid appeared in court in Boston on Monday accused of assaulting flight attendants.

Mr Baker said Reid arrived at his mosque around the end of 1995 after leaving prison, where he had converted to Islam.

He said: ‘‘If they have got the likes of Rahim, there are a lot more and we are very concerned about that.’’

He later added: ‘‘There is a huge number of disaffected Asian youths trying to separate from their family’s cultural view of Islam.’’

Mr Baker said that following the terrorist attack on September 11 he had given police the names of individuals the mosque was concerned about.

He said: ‘‘We work very closely with notifying the police of our concerns.’’

The chairman said it was ‘‘possible’’ Reid knew another worshipper at the mosque, Zacarias Moussaoui, a Frenchman of Moroccan origin who lived in Brixton and who has been charged in the US with conspiracy over the September 11 attacks. The US authorities believe Moussaoui was the ‘‘20th hijacker’’ and had been due to be on board one of the September 11 jets.

Mr Baker said there was a period at the end of 1998 when the two men attended the Brixton mosque and may have come into contact with each other.

He described Reid, who reportedly served a prison sentence at Feltham Young Offender Institution in south-west London, as an amiable person who wanted to learn the basics of the religion.

He said: ‘‘He was someone out of prison who wanted to learn. There was no indication or suspicion he was linked with terrorist organisations.’’

Mr Baker said that as his mosque was a community of converts it attracted some ‘‘extreme elements’’ who were trying to make converts of his members and to ‘‘grab them using emotional rhetoric’’.

He added that they worked on ‘‘weak characters’’ and said: ‘‘I would say he (Reid) was very, very impressionable.’’

Speaking about the alleged attempted bomb attack on the plane, Mr Baker said he shared suspicions in the US that Reid was not acting alone.

‘‘I don’t think Rahim was capable of planning and orchestrating what was done.

‘‘I definitely believe there are individuals behind him and that he was a test and they were watching to see if he would succeed.

‘‘The gullibility of him is evident in the way he tried to ignite the bomb in his shoe and failed to do that.’’

Mr Baker said Reid was a member of his mosque for about two years and was found a job by the community working in an incense shop but at the end of 1998 he just disappeared.

He said earlier this year they had heard he was in Pakistan and that during the summer his mother went to the mosque looking for her son.

Speaking about Moussaoui, Mr Baker said: ‘‘He made his more radical beliefs known and as a result, in the end, his beliefs were not welcome.’’

Mr Baker suggested Reid might have had contact with the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, which is the base of controversial cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.

Mr al-Masri later denied any knowledge of Reid, saying: ‘‘I don’t know about the guy, actually.’’