The Washington Post
LONDON — The man who allegedly tried to set off a bomb in his shoe on an American Airlines flight Saturday was a small-time London thief who converted to Islam in prison and was persuaded by extremists to take up violent jihad, or holy war, the head of his mosque said Wednesday.
Richard Reid, 28, a Briton now being held on federal charges in Boston, worshipped regularly at Brixton Mosque in a predominantly black south London neighborhood. Another occasional worshipper at that mosque was Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been charged with conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks. It is not known whether Reid and Moussaoui knew each other.
But the mosque’s chairman, Abdul Haqq Baker, who did know Reid at the mosque, said Wednesday he believes that Reid must have been working together with professional terrorists when he boarded the American Airlines flight to Miami at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on Saturday.
"He’s not capable of carrying this out on his own," Baker told reporters Wednesday outside the mosque, a converted row house. "From what we know of him, there’s definitely somebody behind him. He was not the one who was the orchestrator of this kind of thing."
While the jet was in the air, a flight attendant found Reid trying to light what appeared to be a fuse on his shoe. Other passengers subdued and bound the man. The plane was diverted to Boston, where FBI agents arrested him on arrival.
Investigators have said that both of Reid’s shoes contained a quantity of a material consistent with the plastic explosive known as C4.
Reid was born in London. He had been using the name Abdel Rahim since converting to Islam, according to Baker, the mosque chairman.
The London newspaper the Times said Reid was born of an English mother and a Jamaican father. He reportedly had been jailed several times for mugging and robbery. While serving time, he converted to Islam, and upon release he started coming to the Brixton Mosque to obtain more information about the religion.
Baker, the mosque chairman, said his mosque is opposed to acts of terror by Muslims and has taken a public stands against Osama bin Laden. But a few years ago, Baker said, Reid began arguing for a more activist form of Islam, including violence. Baker said that other London sheiks may have influenced Reid.
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