It was reported in The Times on Thursday January 17 2002 that the alleged British shoe bomber Richard Reid, a suspected agent of al-Qa'eda, managed to stay safe by deception.
The report said that one of his tricks was to hide his religious fanaticism by scavenging empty alcohol bottles (Muslims generally do not drink alcohol) and cigarette ends from rubbish bins to leave in his hotel rooms. Another was putting his passport through the washing machine to remove a Pakistani visa stamp that might have posed difficulties when he travelled to Israel.
Why would someone do what is a betrayal of his own belief system, and be deceptive about it? Was it his own idea? Is it what he was taught and, if so, by whom and why? Could it be part of the Islamic belief system?
