THE leader of the July 7 Tube bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, and two of his accomplices — Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay — were among the crowds who listened to Abu Hamza’s exhortations to wage holy war.

Khan and his protégé Tanweer had first heard him speak at a mosque near their home in the Beeston area of Leeds. They were so impressed that they travelled south to hear more. Khan first visited Finsbury Park in 2002 and spent the night sleeping in the basement with scores of other youngsters.

Those there remember Khan’s domineering personality and his desire to impress his hero, Abu Hamza. One Finsbury Park veteran who played football with him described him as naturally aggressive. “He wanted to win at all costs, but you could tell he wanted to hurt people. When he tackled, he went for the man. He was up against bigger men, but he would never flinch. It was an honour thing for him.”

Recruiting agents at the mosque would have spotted that in Khan they had a small-time street boss who was an ideal candidate to organise his own cell. Their job was to fire him up to radicalise his friends. Another advantage was that Khan ran his own youth club, which he could turn into a mini-Finsbury Park.

Khan was clearly leadership material, and frustration oozed out of him about getting a raw deal out of life in backstreet Leeds. Figures at the mosque stoked his indignation telling him it was all because he was being persecuted for his faith. He was shown gory videos and DVDs portraying the suffering and slaughter of Muslims around the world and given copies of these films to show other young men in Leeds.

He and Tanweer were urged to keep a lookout for visits to their area by other radical preachers, particularly students of Abu Hamza, like the Jamaican-born preacher Abdullah al-Faisal.

Born William Forest to a Salvation Army family, he had changed his name to al-Faisal, converted to Islam and moved to Britain, living in east London with his wife and five children.

Abu Hamza was al-Faisal’s mentor. They shared speaking platforms and the Jamaican asked Abu Hamza to testify at his trial in 2003, when he was jailed for inciting murder and racial hatred.

Al-Faisal made a name for himself touring around Britain, conducting religious study circles for small groups like the one run by Khan. The self-styled sheikh made at least three such trips to Beeston. He branded non-Muslims as “cockroaches” ripe for extermination and claimed that the Royal Family would burn in hell. “The only way forward is for you, the Muslims, to kill the kuffars (non-Muslims),” he said. The rhetoric echoed that of Abu Hamza, and Khan was entranced.

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