The Disappeared

'During your time at Bristol, Mr Ali, you were a regular at the A1 Rahma mosque, were you not?'

'Yes, I prayed there on Fridays.'

'And this was a small mosque in what had once been a private house?'

'It was.'

'What was its purpose? There were other mosques in the city, weren't there?'

'It was progressive. Mullah Sayeed Faruq established it in the mid-1990s to cater for young men and women who had a different vision of their place in the world.'

'How would you describe Sayeed Faruq's theology?'

'Mainstream.'

'His politics?'

'Questioning.'

'Could you enlarge on that?'

Ali thought carefully before responding. 'He questioned to what extent Muslim identity was being diluted by Western influences and values. Many of us wanted to talk about a future that wasn't based on materialism and violence. We wanted to rediscover the essence of our religion.'

'I understand the police believed him to hold radical and extremist views. Did he?'

'If you mean did he personally advocate violence, no, he did not. Persuasion, force of argument, asserting that the Islamic way was better for the spiritual health of mankind, yes.'

'Was Sayeed Faruq a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir?'

'I believe he was,' Ali said. 'I was not, nor to my knowledge were Nazim or Rafi. But you ought to understand, ma'am, Hizb specifically does not advocate violence to promote Islam. Its purpose is to argue and persuade. It has attracted much suspicion, but in the vast majority of free countries it is not an illegal organization.' He turned to the jury. 'The name means party of liberation.'

'Thank you, Mr Ali. I've done a little research myself. I've read that Hizb's methods of persuasion involve inviting young people to meetings - halaqah - such as the ones you held in your flat at Marlowes Road.'

'I hosted discussion groups, but I was never a member of Hizb or any other organization.'

Unflappable, he had a smooth, well-rehearsed answer for everything. Jenny pushed and probed, but he wouldn't budge from his position that at both the mosque and his discussion group only peaceful means of spreading the Islamic message were discussed. Both he and Sayeed Faruq had believed in working towards the establishment of an international caliphate, but violence and terrorism were condemned as sacrilegious except in self-defence.

Interesting as their exchange was, Jenny noticed a number of jurors beginning to yawn. The finer points of Islamic theology weren't holding their attention. It was time to push on into more contentious territory.

'When did Nazim Jamal first come to the Al Rahma mosque?'

'In October '01, I think. I couldn't say exactly. Rafi came first, Nazim a few weeks later.'

'And when did they start attending your discussion groups?'

'About November time.'

'Who else was there apart from you and them?'

'Various people came and went. They were mostly students.' He rattled off half a dozen names but claimed not to have kept in touch with most of them. Jenny made a note. She'd track them down if necessary.

'Can you give us an idea of a typical discussion - the kind of subjects covered?'

Ali shrugged. 'We talked about Palestine, possible solutions to the conflict; the war in Afghanistan; American paranoia and how Muslims should respond to it.'

'How would you describe Nazim's politics?'

Ali glanced over at Mrs Jamal. She met him with a searching gaze. She was looking at a man who had seen a side of her son she knew nothing of.

'At first he was quiet . . . then he became more confident, more inspired. I remember he was a good scholar. He knew his Koran.'

'Inspired to what, exactly?'

'Ideas. To the notion of a society built on religious principles. He had the untainted enthusiasm of youth, you might say.'

'What was his take on the use of political violence?'

'He was against it, as we all were.'

'And Rafi Hassan?'

'He was quieter. More of a listener than Nazim. I didn't feel I knew him as well.'

'Did he hold similar views?'

'As far as I know. Really, you have to understand, no matter what the police or Security Services may have thought, our discussions were no more radical than those you would have heard at any of the university's political societies. We were young men grappling with ideas, that's all. I believe we were watched simply because Sayeed Faruq was on a list of Hizb members. He was automatically assumed to be part of a fifth column. Little was known about British Muslims at the time except that they shared a faith with some notorious terrorists.'

Thus far Jenny hadn't learned a single piece of new information from the one witness who had been closer to the two missing boys than anyone else she would be calling. She went in harder, pressing Ali to admit that the subject of fighting the Muslim cause must at least have been discussed, but he wouldn't have it. He denied coming into contact with anyone recruiting potential jihadis to fight abroad and maintained that none of the regulars at Marlowes Road halaqah had ever shown the slightest inclination to take up arms. He insisted that he had no clue as to where Nazim and Rafi had disappeared to and denied even suspecting that they had extremist tendencies. She pressed him as to whether he recalled a change in Nazim's mood the weekend before he disappeared, as Mrs Jamal had described: he claimed not to have. Ali had been close to the members of his halaqah, he said, but not so close that he knew the details of their lives. They held spiritual, intellectual gatherings, not social ones.

It was a masterful performance and Jenny didn't believe half of it.

Growing frustrated, she said, 'You must have some idea where they went. You would have heard rumours, at least?'

'No. I must have spent hundreds of hours answering these questions at the time and my answer hasn't changed. I swear before my God, Allah the most merciful, that I do not know where they went or what became of them.'

The solemnity of his oath was greeted with a respectful and reflective silence. All the young men room were still and sombre. Even Alison seemed to be affected by its sincerity.

Jenny said, 'What became of Sayeed Faruq? Where did he go?'

'He went to Pakistan. He was wise enough to know that he would always be under suspicion in this country.'

'You're sure he had nothing to do with their disappearance?'

'Again, I swear it. Whatever happened to them is as mysterious to me as it is to you.' He turned to Mrs Jamal. 'I sincerely wish it wasn't so, ma'am.'

Fraser Havilland and Martha Denton both declined the opportunity to cross-examine. Having failed to open up a single fissure, Jenny sensed they were content not to risk accidentally succeeding. It gave the lie to Gillian Golder's claim that the Security Services were as anxious as she was to find out the truth, but came as no surprise. Jenny was beginning to agree with Yusuf Khan that her inquest had only been allowed to proceed because they were confident it posed no danger other than to project the already diabolical image of young Muslim men. The meaning of Rhys's text message still puzzled her, but perhaps he simply meant that she would have to face the consequences of a non-result alone: it would be she, personally, who would take the blame for failing to unearth the truth.

Pushing these troubling thoughts aside, she asked Yusuf Khan if he wished to cross-examine.