Posted on 07/12/2005 5:07:40 PM PDT by saquin
Ten days ago Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old British Asian, was playing cricket in the local park with his friends. It was something he loved to do. He was a sporty young man who loved martial arts and drove his dad's Mercedes around the streets and had many friends in the Beeston area of Leeds. "He is sound as a pound," said Azi Mohammed, a close friend. "The idea that he was involved in terrorism or extremism is ridiculous. The idea that he went down to London and exploded a bomb is unbelievable.
"I only played cricket in the park with him around 10 days ago. He is not interested in politics." Thought to have been educated at Lawnswood school in Beeston, and a sports science graduate from Leeds University, Shahzad had a brother and two sisters. They were all born in Bradford before moving to Leeds with their parents 20 years ago.
"At school he loved cricket best of all sports. He wanted to be in a county team," said his father's best friend, Mohammed Afzal.
Shahzad's friends, who have not seen him for more than a week, said they were worried about him. "He is missing, man, we are worried about him," said Azi, one of several of Shahzad's friends in the Beeston area. They all dress in jeans and T-shirts and seem to shun traditional Islamic dress.
"Shahzad went to a few mosques around here but he was more interested in his jujitsu. I trained with him all the time; he is really fit."
Brought up in England, Shahzad's father, Mohammed Mumtaz, was originally from the Faisalabad region of Pakistan.
It is thought Shahzad had recently visited Pakistan. The 22-year-old did not have a regular job but sometimes worked in his father's fish and chip shop, South Leeds Fisheries, a few streets away from his home.
It is one of several businesses Mr Mumtaz has owned, including a curry takeaway and a meat shop.
According to family and friends Shahzad, despite his secular appearance, went to many mosques but was a regular at the Bangali mosque on Dewsbury Road near his home.
The imam, Hamid Ali, said yesterday: "Maybe they did it, maybe they didn't. But someone did it and they deserve to be punished."
But I thought all the liberals keep telling me that these terrorists strike because they are poverty-stricken , starving and desperate?
Can't wait for the BIG protests to erupt when they start to convict these poor, rich Muslims for mass murder.
"But I thought all the liberals keep telling me that these terrorists strike because they are poverty-stricken , starving and desperate?"
No the ones that hit the Western countries tend to be upper middle class.
Which is precisely why it happened. Get used to the idea that the muslims hate you, even though they play cricket with you.
said Azi Mohammed
__________________________________
I am guessing the surprised cricketer is a follower of Islam too?
I'd bet money he was also a Guardian reader.
I doubt that he is telling the truth, probably trying to cover his own tracks.
Berkely, Harvard, Yale, Georgetown anyone?
Asian? Is that the new moniker? Isn't he a British - Pakistani? A BritPak? A Pakibrit? Is he Japanese or Chinese or Thai?
"He is sound as a pound," said Azi Mohammed, a close friend. "The idea that he was involved in terrorism or extremism is ridiculous. The idea that he went down to London and exploded a bomb is unbelievable.
We'll see!
Shahzad's friends, who have not seen him for more than a week, said they were worried about him.
Missing for a week? I don't suppose he blew himself to bits while murdering dozens of others did he? Or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he was just a dupe delivering a package which was a bomb.
But reading of the one train on which the bomb was detonated in just about the most inaccessible portion of the Underground system makes me believe these guys knew exactly what they were doing and it is only by shear luck that the death toll is not much higher.
"As long as I can have unprotected sex with multiple anonymous partners while ingesting psychedelic drugs, I'll be sound as a pound"
A. Powers, International Man of Mystery
Guardian has expanded the article as follows ...
From cricket-lover who enjoyed a laugh to terror suspect
Sandra Laville and Ian Cobain
Wednesday July 13, 2005
Guardian
Ten days ago Shahzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old British Asian, was playing cricket in the local park with his friends. It was something he loved to do. He was a sporty young man who loved martial arts, drove his dad's Mercedes and had many friends in the Beeston area of Leeds.
"He is sound as a pound," said Azi Mohammed, a close friend. "The idea that he was involved in terrorism or extremism is ridiculous. The idea that he went down to London and exploded a bomb is unbelievable.
"I only played cricket in the park with him around 10 days ago. He is not interested in politics."
Thought to have been educated at Lawnswood school in Beeston, and a sports science graduate from Leeds University, Shahzad had a brother and two sisters. They were all born in Bradford before moving to Leeds with their parents 20 years ago.
"At school he loved cricket best of all sports. He wanted to be in a county team," said his father's best friend, Mohammed Afzal.
Shahzad's friends, who have not seen him for more than a week, said they were worried about him. "He is missing, man, we are worried about him," said Azi, one of several of Shahzad's friends in the Beeston area. They dress in jeans and T-shirts and seem to shun traditional Islamic dress.
"Shahzad went to a few mosques around here but he was more interested in his jujitsu. I trained with him all the time; he is really fit."
Shahzad's father, Mohammed Mumtaz, was originally from the Faisalabad region of Pakistan.
It is thought Shahzad had recently visited Pakistan. The 22-year-old did not have a regular job but sometimes worked in his father's fish and chip shop, South Leeds Fisheries, a few streets from his home. It is one of several businesses Mr Mumtaz has owned, including a curry takeaway and a meat shop.
According to family and friends Shahzad, despite his secular appearance, went to many mosques but was a regular at the Bangali mosque on Dewsbury Road near his home.
The imam, Hamid Ali, said yesterday: "Maybe they did it, maybe they didn't. But someone did it and they deserve to be punished."
Shahzad was the product of parents who worked hard to build a business after arriving in Britain from Pakistan. As a little boy he played in the streets and alleyways of the culturally mixed working class community of red brick Victorian houses in Colwyn Road which his family made home when he was seven.
Neighbours say they recall him as a smiling boy who would play cricket and football with his friends and his brother on the streets. His father's business grew steadily from a small curry takeaway in Beeston, which he owned with Mr Afzal, to a popular fish and chip shop.
Eventually, with the help of Mr Afzal, his father bought the house next door and knocked the properties through.
Shahzad and his siblings would work in his father's takeaway after school and as teenagers helped behind the counter of the fish and chip shop.
"He has a great sense of humour, he is a really intelligent lad and he has loads of friends round here," said Azi.
There were signs that recently he was becoming a more hardline Muslim. He went to the mosque every day, and was a regular at at least three local mosques.
"Whenever you saw him he would always say he was on his way to the mosque," said a friend who did not want to be named.
His mother, Parvez Akhtar, and father are respected in Beeston. "They are all good people. All Shahzad wanted to do was to have a laugh," said Azi.
In Stratford Street, Beeston, a friend of Hasib Hussain, another of the suspected bombers, said he was very tall and known as a gentle giant.
"He never came across as a fanatic," said the friend, who did not want to be named. He said that Hasib, 19, and Shahzad were very good friends: "Shahzad was always telling kids to stay out of trouble and make something of their lives."
He added that Hasib had travelled to the hajj - the Muslim pilgrimage - in Mecca.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
Correction: "He was a sporty young man who loved martyrial arts."
The perfect sleeper agent. No one suspected him until it was too late.
Maybe he was bitten by an imam. Once that happens, Islam travels from the site of the bite, and migrates up the nerves, eventually causing distemper, salivation, aggressive behaviour, such as blowing up tube trains and buses, and a compulsion to spread the disease by biting other victims.
Missing for a week? Suicide bomber was my gut reaction as well.
Brit-American language difference
Asians are from the Indian sub-conrinent. From further Eaat they are Orientals.
LOL
Not too long ago MEN knew that their job was to protect the women and the children, and yes, the weaker men too. We had eliminated aligators, wolves, mountain lions, polio, small pox, and TB. Somewhere along the line MEN surrendered. We not only allow the old predators of man to regain their strength, but we turn our backs on the human predators too.
Some day soon America will wake up, and maybe Britain and Australia too. Aligators, wolves, mountain lions and sharks will be in zoos or on the table. Islamists will be extinct. It is the MANLY thing to do. It is the American thing tp do.
So much for the whole "poverty breeds terror" shiboleth. This dude's parents were on the north side of the line in '47 but like the wealthier Indians played cricket and got good schooling. But, unlike most south of the line, they were "mooselimbs" and ended up Pakistani. So, at some cricket pitch here in California is a future bomber of BART practicing his swing? Or perhaps somewhere in Jersey - a someday attacker of the NYC subway?
In the UK they refer to all people from the former Raj as "Asians."
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