ALVA, Scotland, Sept. 22 The family of a "wannabe suicide bomber" convicted in Scotland this week says other young Muslim men could face prison just for going online.
Mohammed Atif Siddique was the first person in Scotland found guilty under a new anti-terrorism law. Prosecutors suggested he was being groomed for an attack in Canada or the United States.
His parents say the 21-year-old was just a young man who had adopted a stricter form of Islam, to their dismay, and was curious about what was going on in the Mideast. The couple, originally from Pakistan, operate a store in Alva, a small town near Stirling.
Mohammed and Parveen Siddique scoffed at the prosecution's account.
"He could barely find his way out of Alva, let alone go to Canada," Parveen Siddique said of her son.
Even prosecutors did not describe Atif Siddique as a hardened terrorist, instead calling him a "wannabe suicide bomber" who set up a Web site with links to instructions for bomb-making.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
