Growing up, Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, now 23, liked science and soccer. He excelled in physics and rooted for the Arsenal Football Club.

But as a teenager away at boarding school, he cared less for sports rivalries and showed more interest in the Islamic world's tensions with the West.

"Later in life, when he became very religious, he started talking less and less about sports. One topic he always talks about is international politics. He holds strong views about the United States and Israel," Basiru Hamza, a former domestic servant in Mr. Abdulmatallab's family home in Nigeria, told The Daily Telegraph.

Mr. Abdulmatallab, the suspect in the attempted Christmas day bombing of Northwest Flight 253, was charged on boxing day while he was in hospital receiving treatment for burns to his lower body. He was transported to a federal prison outside Detroit on Sunday.

Mr. Abdulmatallab was at the British School of Lome, Togo, when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001.

His affluent father, who is the former chairman of one of Nigeria's largest banks, sent him there so he could specialize in science after seeing great academic potential in his son.

After the attack, Mr. Abdulmatallab's schoolmates started to see an unrecognizable spark in their quiet friend.

"We used to call him 'Pope' because of the stately manner in which he carried himself. He was kind of quiet but anytime when there was an argument, he would just come alive. After the 9/11 thing he actually defended the Taliban's actions saying that they were provoked," a friend who watched the attack on TV with Mr. Abdulmatallab told NEXT, a Nigerian newspaper. "Everyone thought he was kidding around but he stood his ground."

One of his former teachers at the school said that Mr. Adulmatallab had thought the Taliban had a "reasonable" take on Islam.

In 2004 he graduated from the British School with an International Baccalaureate and in 2005 he went to study engineering at the elite University College London where he lived in a £2-million apartment on Mansfield Street.

He studied with a personal tutor, a common practice for students at UCL.

His tutor, UCL mechanical engineering professor Alvin Blackie, could not be reached for comment but a statement from the university said, "During his time on the course Mr. Abdulmutallab never gave his tutors any cause for concern, and was a well mannered, quietly spoken, polite and able young man. We are deeply shocked by the recent news concerning Mr Abdulmutallab."

After three years Mr. Abdulmatallab graduated with an

undergraduate degree in engineering with business finance and returned to Nigeria. He tried to get into a master's program in London but he was denied a visa for using the name of a fake college on his application.

Instead he enrolled in a master's program at a University in Dubai. An official in the United Arab Emirates who is familiar with Mr. Abdulmatallab's situation told The Wall Street Journal that he did not show any signs of extremist beliefs and acted like "a normal student" while he attended classes. But 2‡ months later he was gone.

"There was nothing at all suspicious about him. He was a normal student, going to classes, and then all of a sudden he disappeared ... and never came back," the official said.

Mr. Abdulmatallab's family said he told his parents that he wanted to go on a seven-year shariah program in Yemen. His friend, Ibrahim Lawal, told NEXT that Mr. Abdulmatallab was a devout Muslim and was interested in studying Islamic theory.

Another friend told the Nigerian newspaper that when Mr. Abdulmatallab told his family that he was dropping out to go to Yemen they threatened to pick him up and take him back to Nigeria.

Mr. Abdulmatallab cut them out and went to Yemen.

In October, he did not show up at his older brother Abdul's wedding.

Last week, his family threw a birthday party for his father's 70th birthday.

There are mixed reports of whether he showed up or not but one friend said that he had attended and told his family to "never try to get in touch with him again."

Two months ago, after he'd gone to Yemen, his father reported him to Nigerian security officials and then two weeks later to U.S. officials. He said that his son was acting "out of character" and he was seeking help to bring his son home.

"We were hopeful that they would find and return him home," said a statement from the family.

"It was while we were waiting for the outcome of their investigation that we arose to the shocking news of that day."