later withdrawn and he was released when the prosecution became aware that MI5 had known of, and consented to, his travel to Syria. Life prior to detention Early life and education Moazzam Begg was born in Sparkhill in 1968, and grew up in Moseley, both suburbs of Birmingham. His father, Azmat Begg, was born in British India and lived in Pakistan before emigrating with his wife to Great Britain. Begg's mother died when he was six, and his father initially worked in Britain as a bank manager. Begg holds dual UK–Pakistani citizenship. Begg attended the Jewish King David School, Birmingham, from age 5 to 11, because his father thought it promoted good values. Begg later attended Moseley Secondary School. During secondary school, he became a member of the Lynx gang, a Birmingham street gang. The group was mostly Pakistani, but also included Algerian, Asian, Afro-Caribbean and Irish youths. The group was founded in the early 1970's to fight attacks by far right anti-immigrant groups. He said "we did things that no good Muslim should," but stated he rarely did anything violent. He once appeared in court for taking part in a fight with skinheads. Begg attended Solihull College, and later the University of Wolverhampton, where he studied Law for two years, which he did not enjoy and did not complete his degree. UK and travels to Islamic countries, 1993–98 On a family holiday to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in his late teens, Begg became interested in Islam. In late 1993 he returned to Pakistan and crossed the Pakistani–Afghan border with some young Pakistanis near the city of Khost. Begg said he visited a camp where US-backed nationalist and Islamic rebels were training to fight the Soviet-backed Afghan government. The training camp was run by either the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance or a Pakistani group fighting for Kashmir. Begg later wrote of his time at the camp: "I had met men who seemed to me exemplary in their faith and self-sacrifice, and seen a world that awed and inspired me". Begg says he did not participate in the training. Inspired by the commitment of the mujahedeen, Begg said he travelled to Bosnia in the early 1990s to help the Muslims during the war. He said he was "terribly affected by some of the stories ... of the atrocities taking place there". In 1994 he joined a charity that worked with Muslims in