The world of intelligence and psychology are battling to unravel what suddenly turns a normal, everyday person to a terrorist. How are good, friendly people radicalized? The question is again at the top burner of discussion after the terrorist attack at Westminster, United Kingdom.
Many have alluded to lack of integration and poverty as perhaps the main avenue to radicalization but this seems to be fast fading in lieu of recent terrorist attacks in several European countries.
A curious case is that of Khalid Masood, the terrorist of Westminster. He was born in Kent, south-east England on December 25, 1964. His name at birth was Adrian Russell Ajao though he went on to use many aliases. As a boy, he loved to party, played soccer and enjoyed womanizing.
His mother was a Christian. He was a jolly good fellow according to those who knew him. How such an athletic, good boy developed to a man of many criminal convictions is a question nagging at the mind of many people.
From his birth name-Ajao, it is very clear that his father was a Nigerian. Ajao is a Yoruba name. Masood first criminal conviction was – for criminal damage – was in November 1983, when he would have been 19. This was followed by convictions for assaults including causing grievous bodily harm, possession of offensive weapons and public order offenses. His most recent conviction was in December 2003 for possession of a knife, police said.
Despite all these criminal convictions, he was never charged or accused of anything relating to terrorism. Khalid Mosood also known as Adrian Elms was given a two-year prison term in 2000 for slashing the face of a cafe owner in an argument in a pub. He was 35 then.
According to the report, Elms, from the village of Northiam, near Rye, admitted charges of unlawful wounding and criminal damage at Hove Crown Court. He was one of only two black men living in the village at the time and there were “racial overtones” to the row, the court heard.
“His wife and family have now become ostracized in the village. It is a very small community and his wife and family have been extremely affected by this, his lawyer, Alexander Taylor-Camara, told the court.
“He will effectively have to move his family from the village and start to live his life all over again. It will leave the village with a view of black people in the area. The trust that may have been there in the beginning is now completely lost.”
It is not known when Masood converted to Islam, or changed his name, although he stopped using his birth name on the electoral roll from at least 2009. While Masood is believed to have lived in a string of addresses in the south of England, London, and Luton – the latter with a 39-year-old woman understood to have been arrested in east London this week – it’s believed he most recently lived in a block of new flats on Quayside, a cul-de-sac in Birmingham near the canal.
The Metropolitan police said in a statement: “Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack.”
After leaving Birmingham this week, Masood travelled to Brighton, where he spent Tuesday night in the Preston Park Hotel. Masood began his attack by mounting the pavement on Westminster Bridge and driving into pedestrians, killing 51-year-old American tourist Kurt Cochran, who was celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary; 43-year-old Spanish teacher Aysha Frade, who was travelling to pick up her two young daughters from school; and 75-year-old Leslie Rhodes from south London, who had been visiting someone in hospital. He also injured closed to 50 people.
After crashing the car into a fence outside the Palace of Westminster, Masood ran into the parliamentary estate through an open gate, fatally stabbing 48-year-old PC Keith Palmer, a father and husband, before being shot by police.
