Studying Europe's Muslim terrorists

Note the man was a convert. It was Islam that turned him into a potential mass murderer.

On the mantelpiece are the cards her son has sent from prison. In them, Reilly sends his mother "love and cuddles".

His scribbled, child-like handwriting is a clue to the fact that he has a mental age of 10.

Ms Reilly says that ever since he was a little boy, her son has always had obsessions.

When he converted to Islam two years ago, she assumed it was just another obsessive phase. She says he became increasingly intolerant of the rest of the family, but that there was no sign of any extremism.

She believes he was groomed for the job of would-be suicide-bomber.

"He's just a vulnerable person who has been radicalised. He was an easy target - easy prey for them."

The police agreed.

The BBC has learned the security services were aware of Reilly in the months before the attack.

But a source insisted he was "only of peripheral interest". The authorities were aware of him because they believed he had been associating with a number of men in the Plymouth area who were known to hold radical views.

In the days after the blast, Devon and Cornwall Police questioned three men in Plymouth but no-one else has ever been charged in connection with the attack.

Now the police will have to explain whether they got it wrong - and Reilly was, in fact, working alone - or whether they have failed to catch the real mastermind behind the plot.

Members of Plymouth's Muslim community have always condemned Reilly's actions in the strongest terms.

One man told the BBC the convert was regarded as "something of an oddball" but they insist he never gave them any reason to think he was a potential terrorist.

Neighbours in the Stonehouse area of Plymouth say Reilly became secretive and withdrawn in the weeks before the attack.

do you respect the islamic view of the role of women, about homosexuality, genital mutilation and creationism?

If I am hearing him right, Steve's position is that if Islam put as much public emphasis on denouncing terrorism and condemning its proponents to serious judgment as it does in promising heavenly rewards to those who do violence in obedience to Allah, perhaps Islamic terrorism would fall largely out of favor with most Muslims everywhere.

Christian terrorism has become an infrequent and relatively small scale thing that is soundly and publiclly condemned by the vast majority of Christians everywhere.

She challenges claims, notably made by Tony Blair, that the war in Iraq was not related to the radicalisation of Muslim youth in Britain.

Asked what impact the war had on the terrorist threat, she replies: "Well, I think all one can do is look at what those people who've been arrested or have left suicide videos say about their motivation. And most of them, as far as I'm aware, say that the war in Iraq played a significant part in persuading them that this is the right course of action to take."

She adds: "So I think you can't write the war in Iraq out of history. If what we're looking at is groups of disaffected young men born in this country who turn to terrorism, then I think to ignore the effect of the war in Iraq is misleading."

Steve 41oo wrote:

do you respect the islamic view of the role of women, about homosexuality, genital mutilation and creationism?

Just to pick up on one thing, you're not seriously calling genital mutilation an "islamic view", are you?...

nimh wrote:

Steve 41oo wrote:

do you respect the islamic view of the role of women, about homosexuality, genital mutilation and creationism?

Just to pick up on one thing, you're not seriously calling genital mutilation an "islamic view", are you?...

Yes. And I did not mention the sex of the child.

Steve 41oo wrote:

nimh wrote:

Steve 41oo wrote:

do you respect the islamic view of the role of women, about homosexuality, genital mutilation and creationism?

Just to pick up on one thing, you're not seriously calling genital mutilation an "islamic view", are you?...

Yes. And I did not mention the sex of the child.

Well that makes it even more outlandish. Female genital mutilation is not a religious, but a cultural thing, practiced in a certain area of the world, by Muslims but also non-Muslims, and not or barely practiced by Muslims elsewhere. But male genital mutilation? Are you referring to circumcision? How in heavens name is that tied in with an Islamic view? You know most American men are circumcised right? And all Jewish men?

What is outlandish about saying I disapprove of circumcision of children except for medical reasons.

anything.... seems like you're looking for ANYTHING, steve.

it's not nimh who is sounding like a fanatic here. sorry, i like you otherwise, but this is...well, wow, like i said.

What other religions besides Islam "have no view" on it?