The suspect, Abdulfarouk Muttalab who is an engineering student at the University College, London had been noted for his extreme views on religion since his secondary school days at the British International School, Lome, Togo.
At the secondary school, he was known for preaching about Islam to his school mates and he qwas popularly called ëAlfaí , a local coinage for Islamic scholar. After his secondary school, the young man, family sources said, once relocated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from where he declared to his family members that he did not want to have anything to do with any of them again.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=162769
Yes, but it would have been very insensitive for the Times to include that information in its article ;-)