The crazy man wielding a knife after hacking a British soldier to death yesterday in London was born in England and came from a devout Christian family.
Michael Adebolajo was described as a "lovely, lovely guy" by his friend at Marshall Fields School. He was bright and witty, studied hard and played football with his mates.
His parents were hard working Nigerian immigrants from an academic family in West Africa and arrived in the early 1980s. His father, an NHS nurse and his mother a social worker, were determined to assimilate into the British way of life. When their son turned to petty crime, they were devastated and moved the family to Lincolnshire, hoping for a fresh start, but it was too late. He told a friend he was converted to Islam in prison.
After his A levels, he went to live in student accommodation at the University of Greenwich - a suburb with a large Muslim population. It was around the time Tony Blair sent troops to Iraq and he attended the nearby mosque in Lewisham. In 2006, cleric Shakeel Begg was recorded urging students to wage jihad against Israelis in Palestine.
He changed his name to Mujaahid - one who engages in jihad - and joined banned Islamist groups. With sermons of preacher Anjam Choudary ringing in his ears, he learned how to hate and by 2006 he was marching with radicals bearing signs that read "Behead those who insult Islam." Last year he was stopped from travelling to Somalia to fight with other fanatics.
Anjam Choudary
Last night Choudary boasted that Adebolajo embraced Islam around the age of 15 or 16. "I knew him as Mujaahid, he attended our meetings and my lectures" he said.
He blames the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby on Britain and said "We must concentrate on why this incident took place - which is the presence of British forces in Muslim countries and the atrocities they have committed, and how the Muslim community in this country are under pressure due to draconian laws which have tried to silence them."
BBC footage shows Adebolajo sanding behind Choudary as he rants on a megaphone during a London protest in 2007. Although Choudary burnt a poppy on Remembrance Day in 2010 and continues to spew hatred towards British soldiers returning from Afghanistan, he has never been prosecuted in the UK.
Enoch Powell
Enoch Powell must be spinning in his grave. In the 60s he warned British politicians that their immigration and anti-discrimination legislation would bring trouble, but nobody listened and he was branded a foul racist. "As I look ahead" he said "I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood."
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