While Khuram Butt was on a radicalisation path that would lead to the worst atrocity in London in more than a decade, his older brother was trying to fight the hate that leads to terrorism.
Saad Butt, 29, received funding from police as part of his involvement in the Prevent programme to combat violent extremism, The Times has learnt. A group that received funding to fight hateful philosophies was set up at the Butt family home in east London.
However, his brother Khuram was a supporter of al-Muhajiroun, the banned extremist group whose leader, Anjem Choudary, is in jail for pledging support for Islamic State.
Last year Khuram appeared in a Channel 4 documentary, The Jihadis Next Door, with other Choudary followers. He was seen praying in front of the black flag of Islam, unfurled in Regent’s Park by a group of young men in Middle Eastern-style clothing.
Khuram Butt was born in Jhelum, in northern Punjab, Pakistan. Neighbours said the family sought asylum in Britain before the death of Butt’s father in 2002 left him in shock. They told Mail Online that Butt was run over outside his house in east London when he was about eight years old. His teeth were broken and his leg damaged badly.
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He married Zahra Barbara Rahman and had two young children. As well as extremist videos, his YouTube selections included nursery rhymes.
Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police’s head of counterterrorism, confirmed last night that the force had received a tip about Butt’s extremism in a call to a hotline a few months after an investigation was launched into him in the summer of 2015. Mr Rowley said that he was placed lower on the priority list because there was no evidence that he was planning an attack.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said he was abused by Khuram Butt a day after the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in May 2013 by two Islamist fanatics. He claimed Butt was with Choudary on College Green, in Westminster, when he “called me a murtad, which means traitor in Arabic”. He said Butt accused him of being a “government stooge” when he confronted Choudhury about his support for terrorism.
He said: “The police turned up and Anjem, Khuram Butt and two other men were escorted away towards Millbank and I stayed in College Green. I am not surprised that Khuram Butt carried out the terrorist attack and there are serious questions for the authorities.”
Jibril Palomba, who lives near Butt’s home in Barking, said his wife had reported the killer to police two years ago with concerns that he was trying to convert children. He said it began with handing out sweets but soon Butt went to football games and preached to children of all backgrounds and ages. He said his 12-year-old son had played football in the park and, referring to Butt, told him: “Daddy, I want to become Muslim. The man at the park said if I don’t become Muslim I will be condemned by Allah.” When his wife approached Butt, Mr Palomba claimed, she was told that he would only speak to men.
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A fellow member of the Islamic fitness centre where Butt worked said that the terrorist had once confided in him that he used to be a “bad boy” who smoked cannabis but had changed his life. He said Butt, who also worked at KFC and claimed in an online CV to work for Transport for London, would engage teenagers using the gym in conversations about Islam.
It has been claimed that Butt hosted a “last supper” barbecue in Barking Park a week ago. A 30-year-old neighbour told the Daily Mail: “It was all men, not even any kids, they were all Muslims. He invited me but I didn’t attend.”
On YouTube, a page apparently created by Butt contains videos of extremist preachers including Abu Haleema, an associate of Choudary. One video, liked by the killer’s suspected account a year ago, decries mainstream mosques for “spying on Muslims”.
His elder brother, Saad, was at the other end of the spectrum. He was one of 23 members of the Young Muslims Advisory Group (Ymag), after applying for the role in 2009 and going through background security checks. Ymag was set up to great fanfare by Hazel Blears, who was communities secretary in the Labour government, and Ed Balls, the schools and families secretary, so the government could “engage” with young Muslims after the July 7 bombings.
Along with the other members, who were aged between 17 and 26, Saad Butt met the two ministers every three months to be a “critical friend” to the government. He contributed to a report published through the Office of Public Management called It’s a Two-Way Thing — Improving Communication Between Young People and Government in 2010. When the coalition government cut funding to Ymag that year, a company was set up to complete research that the group was carrying out for the Association of Chief Police Officers — now the National Police Chiefs’ Council — on young Muslims’ disaffection with the police. It was registered to Mr Butt’s family home near Forest Gate.
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One former member, Waliur Rahman, 32, who works at Nationwide in Bristol, said that Mr Butt “was very engaged in the whole concept of Prevent”. All Ymag advisers acted voluntarily although Mr Rahman said that Mr Butt and a colleague were paid “under £10,000” by Acpo to finish the research.
Ymag was heavily criticised in some areas with Baroness Warsi, a Muslim who was the shadow community cohesion minister, calling it “patronising and deeply concerning”. She argued that treating the Muslim community as a “homogenous block” led to “a more divided Britain”.
