Those that were close to the other bombers tell the same tale: "they were ordinary British youngsters, from ordinary families".

A neighbour of Mohamed Sadiq Khan who planted the bomb at Edgeware Road remembers the killer as a "family man who loved his wife Hasina and little daughter".

"He did not look like a fundamentalist Muslim. He wore western clothes and had a thin beard. He was well-spoken and loved by all at the school where he worked."

"It is sad for his family, especially his wife and mother-in-law, Farida Patel."

Patel is well known around here. She grew up in Germiston on the East Rand and married British national, Abdul-Salaam Patel.

Anne Wilkins is a neighbour: "Farida is a lovely lady. She is caring and does a lot for our community. We were delighted when the Queen invited her to Buckingham Palace a few years for a garden party because of her contributions to the people of West Yorkshire."

South African not a terror suspect

"I am happy that police have made it clear that Farida is not a terror suspect."

I have ascertained that Patel was at a meeting in nearby Batley when news of the London attacks broke last Thursday morning. She had gone to meet the Archbishop of Canterbury who travelled to the area to meet Muslim leaders as part of a "goodwill visit".

"As we sat there, Farida was unaware that her daughter’s husband was one of the bombers and that he was dead," a close friend said. "It is sad."

As kids play on the pavements and in parks, scholars return from college, people shop and workers clean the streets, the face of West Yorkshire is changing.

"I am now afraid to tell people I am from Yorkshire," remarks construction worker, Adam Brookes.

Suliman Kazi is a solicitor in Bradford. "We must condemn the attacks and the bombers. Muslims must not be labelled as terrorists."

The Bishop of Leeds, the Right Rev Arthur Roche, chats to locals outside the exclusion zone in Burley, Leeds: "I have sympathy with Muslims who faced being vilified in the aftermath of the bombings."

"The Catholic church has gone through this with the IRA bombers. One knows the suspicion you can be held in and the disapproval that can come your way.

"Unity" is the way forward

"The challenge to Christian communities is to come out and help our Muslim brothers and sisters to be more integrated in our society today," says Roche.

This is the message some Muslims of Britain want to hear.

"Challenging times lie ahead. Unity seems to be the sensible way forward," an Islamic scholar retorts.

Will Leeds be the Leeds we know? Will the tensions simmer? The next few weeks will reveal it all.

• Yusuf Abramjee reported on the London bombings and the events in West Yorkshire for Talk Radio 702, 94.7 Highveld Stereo, 567 Cape Talk and 94.5 Kfm. He is Group Head of News and Talk Programming at Primedia Broadcasting. Abramjee broke the story of the South African link to the bombings.