THE SUICIDE bomber who struck in Stockholm on Saturday stormed out of a British mosque where he worshipped after being confronted over his extremism, it has emerged.
Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly (29), who set off a car bomb in the Swedish capital before killing himself with a second device strapped to his body, attended the Luton Islamic centre, where the mosque’s leaders expressed concern about his views.
Abdaly was a student at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton between 2001 and 2004 and continued to live in the town after graduating.
Qadeer Baksh, the chairman of Luton Islamic centre, said Abdaly showed up at the mosque during Ramadan in 2006 or 2007 and made an instant impression with his “very bubbly character”. However they soon clashed over his views.
“We were challenging his philosophical attitude to jihad,” said Mr Baksh. “He got so angry that he left. He was just supporting and propagating these incorrect foundations [of Islam], so I stepped in.”
He said Abdaly believed scholars of Islam were “in the pocket of the government” and proposed a “physical jihad”.
Mr Baksh said he thought he had talked Abdaly round to a more moderate position but the Iraqi-born Swede then came back with more arguments.
“I had no idea it would escalate to where it escalated,” said Mr Baksh. “I thought that when he stormed off he was just angry at me. I heard afterwards that he was criticising the mosque in general and me in particular at the university. He said we were working for the British government and that we were in the pocket of Saudi Arabia.”
Despite the clashes, Mr Baksh said it was not for him to report Abdaly to the police or security services. “It’s the police’s job, the intelligence service’s job to follow these people up, not ours,” he said.
“You can’t just inform on any Muslim having extreme views. In the past many Muslims have had extreme views but have become good balance Muslims.”
Police continued to search a terraced house in Luton yesterday as part of the investigation. Abdaly’s wife and three children reportedly live in Luton, where neighbours said they last saw him 2½ weeks ago.
Police obtained access to the property yesterday with a warrant issued under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000. British officials have confirmed the bomber’s identity and Swedish police say they are 98 per cent certain Abdaly was the culprit.
Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that the country’s security service believed the bomb went off accidentally and that Abdaly had planned to detonate three devices, including one at the main railway station and another at a large department store. It said he had planned to blow up his car but also had 12 pipe bombs strapped to his body and a bomb in a rucksack.
Abdaly has been hailed as a martyr on the Islamist website al- Hanin. A photomontage on the site suggests he was a member of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation, the Islamic State of Iraq.
In 2007, the group’s leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, called for reprisals in Sweden for the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad by the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. In an e-mail apparently written by Abdaly and sent to Swedish news agency TT shortly before the explosions, he condemned Sweden’s “stupid support for the pig Vilks”.
Abdaly's father was quoted by Expressenas saying he had lost contact with his son. "He did not say where he was going," he told the newspaper. "The whole family is in shock and wants to find out what happened."
Tahir Hussain, a taxi driver who lives near to the Luton house being searched, said he used to exchange greetings with Abdaly.
“He had only been here about a year. I used to chat to him a bit: say good morning, good afternoon. He seemed like a very nice person. I never thought he’d be like this.” – (Guardian service)