Modest activist's ideals 'closer to Hamas than Arafat'

The community of worshippers at the Hounslow mosque in west London were coming to terms with the idea that one of their number may have been the suicide bomber who killed three people in a Tel Aviv beach café.

Asif Mohammed Hanif hardly stood out as the sort of individual who would commit such an act, if – as worshippers at the mosque suggest – he was the man who carried a suitcase into Mike's Place, a popular haunt with tourists.

One worshipper, who would not be named but said he clearly identified Hanif from television pictures, described the man's activism on the Israel-Palestine issue as modest, confined to passing out leaflets. He was gentle and "never seemed to be saying he wanted to kill people". Another man said that he had also recognised the bomber from the television pictures and had known him as a young man.

Hanif visited the mosque every day, did not speak of having a family, but had not been present for the past few weeks, according to the first worshipper. "I don't know whether he had any family. He came to the mosque every day so he must have lived locally. He was not a Palestinian originally, I think he was actually from Pakistan," the man said.

"He was very pro-Palestine but he was not that keen on Yasser Arafat. He used to say he gave in to the Israelis too much. He was much more keen on Hamas and groups like that. From what I saw of him he did not seem your normal extremist type. I have been in situations where people are preaching hatred and he was not at all like that. The last time I spoke to him he was more concerned about the Iraqi situation. He said it was a Zionist conspiracy in a greater Israel, that it was nothing to do with oil or anything like that."

The member of the congregation said all of the imams at the mosque had held a meeting yesterday and appeared to be preparing a statement. "The man who killed himself had been part of a big group of friends who used to hand out political leaflets outside the mosque. The mosque authorities were never comfortable with them and there was a lot of tension and a lot of groups meeting in secret yesterday."

Meanwhile, in Derby, locals voice astonishment after learning that Omar Khan Sharif, 27, had apparently lived for more than 10 years in a neat semi- detached home close to the city centre.

Last night, the Victorian property was deserted. Members of his family had abruptly left. Sharif's sister and her husband were bundled into a waiting white Toyota car as news of Sharif's alleged would-be suicide attack in Tel Aviv spread through the stunned community. Neighbours said Sharif, whose mother died five years ago and whose father passed away ten years earlier, was believed to have left Britain several months ago before the outbreak of the Iraq war.

One said: "They did not mix with many people, even other Asians. It is fair to say that they were seen as fundamentalists. They worshipped at a different mosque to everyone else. They were of a Muslim sect of the kind you get in Afghanistan."

Britain's Muslim community expressed a deep sense of dismay at the news that the two Tel Aviv bombers held British passports.

Iqbal Sacranie, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, condemned the loss of innocent civilian life but said he felt the incident did not mark a growth of Islamic extremism within the British Muslim community.

"We can not condone the loss of any civilian life whether it be Palestinian or Israeli. However, the Palestinian tragedy of occupation and oppression has been going on for so long with no positive result. As we see now, people are going to such extremes.

"This is a very powerful message that has come out of this terrible incident. It is not just Palestinians who are prepared to give their lives. Now we see people all over the world are disenchanted with the never-ending peace process, which we desperately need a resolution to," he said.