London (CNN) Mohammed
Emwazi: The world knows him better as "Jihadi John," the man whose
masked face and British accented-taunts have featured in a series of
brutal ISIS execution videos.
But
many of those who grew up with him have told the UK media that remember
Emwazi altogether differently: as the typical "boy next door," a
popular kid who loved football, pop music and The Simpsons.
A
day after the long-standing mystery behind Jihadi John's identity was
solved, clues to his past have begun to emerge -- but far from showing
him as a violent extremist, they paint a picture of an ordinary child
and teenager growing up in the British capital.
Emwazi
was born in Kuwait in 1988, and moved to the UK with his parents, Jasem
and Ghaneya, and sister at the age of six, according to CAGE, an advocacy group for those affected by terrorism investigations.
The family settled down in west London; Emwazi's father is reported to have worked as a taxi driver, while his mother stayed at home to look after Emwazi and his siblings.
He is reported to have attended St Mary Magdalene Church of England Primary School,
in London's Maida Vale; a photograph published on the front pages of
several British newspapers showed a smiling young boy in the school's
scarlet sweater uniform, surrounded by his classmates and teacher -- a
far cry from the black-clad jihadi infamous around the world.
When contacted by CNN, the school's headteacher refused to comment. On its website,
the school -- whose motto is "believe, achieve and succeed together" --
proudly proclaims: "We are a very inclusive, multicultural and diverse
school, where many languages and religions reside happily under one
roof."
A former classmate there told the Daily Mail newspaper
that Emwazi was sporty and popular, but had initially struggled with
English: "He could only say a few words at first, like his name and
where he was from.
"He played football
every lunchtime and at the after-school football club. Through
football, he learned different words and expressions."
The
paper reported that, writing in a class yearbook aged 10, Emwazi told
of his love for pop group S Club 7, The Simpsons, the shoot-'em-up
computer game Duke Nukem and -- like so many other British children --
listed his favourite food as chips.
Another friend from St Mary Magdalene told radio station LBC:
"I used to go with him to that primary school ... I do remember him
very well ... I was a year younger than him and he treated me as someone
he used to teach."
The man, who was
identified only as Mohammed, said the pair's mothers had been "very good
friends" until three years ago when rumors began to circulate about
Emwazi's terror links. "His mum used to sell gold and stuff like that to
the local community."
Mohammed and
another former classmate both said they have vivid memories of a painful
injury sustained by the youngster when he was in the final year of
primary school.
"In the playground ...
He was just about to get into a fight and he was running away from
someone ... another guy tried to block off his path. He had nowhere to
go and he basically ran into the goalposts, hit his head onto a metal
goalpost and fell to the floor," Mohammed told LBC, adding that his
friend missed two weeks of classes and "he was not the same, ever since
that brain injury."
Londoner Matt Seton wrote on Twitter that he went to school with Emwazi:
"He was a 12 year old kid ... I remember one [time] we were playing
football and he smashed his head on the goalpost. Now he kills people
for a living."
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