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CNN Saturday Morning News

A Look at Richard Reid's Younger Years

Aired December 29, 2001 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the case of the shoe bomb suspect. Before Richard Reid received this dubious title, he was a follower of Islam and trying to turn his life around. So what went wrong?

Well, we get a look at Reid's younger years now from CNN's Juanita Phillips in London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LESLEY HUGHES, RICHARD REID'S MOTHER: Other than what I've heard or read in the media, I have no knowledge of this matter. As any mother would be, I'm obviously deeply shocked and concerned at the allegations being made against Richard. We need some time to come to terms with the current situation and would ask you now to leave us alone and to respect the difficulty of our position. Thank you.

JUANITA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To the world, Richard Reid is a suspected terrorist, accused of trying to blow up an international airliner with a bomb in his shoes. But to his parents, he's the son who went astray.

This was the family in happier days in London, 3-year-old Richard with father Robin and mother Leslie. His parents later divorced.

(on camera): As a teenager, Richard Reid turned to petty crime and ended up here at the Feltham Young Offender's Institution outside London. His first stint here was in 1992. Now at some point between then and 1996 when he turned up at the Brixton mosque after another stint in jail, he converted to Islam and began using the name Abdel Raheem.

(voice-over): When Richard Reid came to this south London mosque, mosque officials say he was an eager student of Islam, looking for help and rehabilitation. But, they say, that soon changed.

ABDUL HAQQ BAKER, BRIXTON MOSQUE CHAIRMAN: He'd start wearing the army green jacket. He started questioning our understanding of jihad and Islam in comparison to what he was learning from elsewhere and it became clear to us that he was learning the more extreme and unacceptable views regarding jihad and Islam.

J. PHILLIPS: Those who knew him there say Reid was impressionable and vulnerable. Now there's growing concern in Britain that terrorist organizations are infiltrating the mainstream Muslim community, recruiting impressionable young men for jihad, or holy war, against the West.

ZAKI BADAWI, PRINCIPAL, MUSLIM COLLEGE: Largely this happens in the universities. It happens in mosques. It happens everywhere. So you find that the people actually propagate their ideas as, you know, largely one to one person. And then once the person is committed or at least showing interest, they are called into meetings and the meetings then will give them further training, further ideas and so on.

J. PHILLIPS: The vast majority of Britain's Muslims are moderate and some are keen to play down the idea that their mosques are vulnerable to terrorist groups. At the Muslim Welfare House in London, they say extremist recruiters don't get past the front door.

FADI ITANI, MUSLIM WELFARE HOUSE: We don't allow anybody to come and do whatever they want within the premises here unless we know who they are and unless we know that what they are trying to talk about, it benefits the community here.

J. PHILLIPS: As Richard Reid faced court in the United States, the British government moved to suspend a third prison imam accused of making inappropriate comments since September 11, including praise for the suicide bombers.

Coincidentally, one of the other two imams suspended worked at Feltham Young Offenders institution, where years before Richard Reid was doing time.

Juanita Phillips, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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