Birmingham’s been magnet for extremists
IT was the last place killer Khalid Masood called home.
Investigators are trying to discover why he was drawn to live in Birmingham – a city dubbed the “jihadi finishing school” – after living in affluent southern towns like Rye and Tunbridge Wells.
Police will want to know who Masood associated with and whether he acted
alone. He had also lived in other notorious terror hotspots, including Crawley, East London and Luton.
Masood lived with his daughter in a semi in Hockley. Neighbours described him as a pleasant man.
Nearby Sparkbrook was home to one in 10 convicted Islamic terrorists in the UK, producing 26 of Britain’s 269 known jihadis. Birmingham has been a magnet for extremists since the 1980s – such as Rashid Rauf, who groomed the 7/7 bombers.
A network of jihadis has flourished in backstreet mosques and houses. Authorities have turned a blind eye or failed to infiltrate them.
One former extremist said that radical Muslims are “drawn to Birmingham” because they know “shadowy figures who could facilitate their desire to carry out jihad”.