WHEN a Nigerian woman’s son went missing in the London bombings, her cry of desolation resounded around the world.

The grief shown by Marie Fatayi-Williams at the scene of the Tavistock Square bus bombing numbed her audience and left passers-by in tears.

Yesterday she was at the centre of a display of unity between Muslims and Christians at a funeral mass for Anthony, her 26-year-old son, at Westminster Cathedral. She was praised by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, as “a beacon of light to guide our response to terrorism”.

Five days after the attacks, Marie, a marketing director, flew from her home in Lagos to address Londoners and to send a message to those responsible for more than 50 deaths.

At the time, her son was posted as missing. The oil executive, who was born in Britain, and lived in Hendon, northwest London, had headed towards the City branch of the Northern line, bound for Old Street, where he worked for Amec. He was reportedly seen at Euston amid the confusion and it was feared he had caught the No 30 bus, which exploded at 9.47am.

At the scene of the blast, his mother found an eloquence that transcended the sub-Churchillian efforts of most politicians.

“My heart is maimed,” she said. “How many other mothers’ hearts are maimed at this moment?” Through her tears she declared: “Neither the cause of God nor Allah was being served by this. Terrorism is not the way. It will not beget peace.”

She added: “I need to know what happened to Anthony.”

Yesterday there was no doubt. Anthony’s coffin was the focus of hundreds of mourners who listened to Murphy- O’Connor at the service conducted by his auxiliary bishop, Alan Hopes. Surrounded by friends and family, Anthony’s mother sat with her husband Alan, 52, and their two daughters, Loretta, 16, and Aisha, 13.

The symbolism of the ceremony became clear when it emerged that Marie is a devout Catholic who worships at Westminster Cathedral when in London, while her husband, a doctor, is a Muslim.

Both wings of the family, together with 500 friends from Nigeria representing the two faiths, had come together to honour the young man. “What happened to Anthony is not going to divide us in any way,” said Julie Coker, a family friend. “We are united in love.”

Marie gave a brief eulogy and sang a tribute to her son while her husband announced the setting up of the Anthony Fatayi-Williams Foundation for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

In sharp contrast, funeral rites were observed earlier last week for Shehzad Tanweer, whose suicide bomb at Aldgate station killed seven people. At his family’s ancestral home in a Pakistan village, verses were recited from the Koran and the crowd hailed the 22-year-old from Leeds as “a hero of Islam”.

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