When the two-minute silence ended, Zainab al-Hariri unfolded a cardboard banner bearing the slogan "Islam does not promote terror" and held it aloft in the middle of the crowd.
It was her way of standing up to the bombers, she explained.
The Iraqi exile has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions since July 7th.
One of her brothers had been in Edgware Road Station when the first of the four London bombs went off. While he escaped uninjured, al-Hariri experienced a further shock earlier this week when news broke that four neighbours in Leeds had carried out the atrocities.
Furthermore, the situation in her home country had been identified as a possible reason for their acts of terrorism.
"It's all so wrong," she said. "We have suicide bombers in Iraq killing innocent people and children, and now we have the same here. They are using Iraq as an excuse. Their actions have nothing to do with what is best for Iraq. They have nothing to do with Islam."
The sense of hurt was etched on her face, and it is a hurt shared by so many other Muslims, scores of whom joined al-Hariri for a noon-time remembrance ceremony outside Leeds City Hall.
They know their religion, their causes, and their city have been dragged through the mire by the actions of four - but possibly more - local fanatics.
Sikh community leader Harbans Sagoo said Leeds was a "truly multi-faith, multi-cultural and cosmopolitan city". But it has been "disgraced locally, nationally and internationally. Its image has been tarnished by a few individuals for their own selfish motives."
His thoughts were shared by council leader Mark Harris. "With the eyes of the world on us, we have an extra trauma to face in Leeds," he said. The Liberal Democrat politician was a constant presence around the city yesterday, looking to soothe people's nerves and spread the word that Leeds remained a model city of ethnic harmony. "There is no place for extremism here, and I am very confident there will be no place for extremism in the future," he said.
Joining him in the public relations drive were officials from the city council, who handed out press packs showing various civic amenities and improvement schemes in Beeston and Holbeck, where at least two of the suicide bombers were reared.
The brochures included photographs of a "facelift" for Tempest Road, close to which terror suspects Shahzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain both lived. There were also details of a new skateboard park, a multi-cultural market and a community centre the two young men happened to have frequented.
Near the centre yesterday, youths the same age as Tanweer and Hussain gathered to observe the latest police searches. Some spoke with bravado about trying to find the "ringleaders".
"An eye for an eye - that's what I believe," said one youth, resting on a low brick wall.
Most locals, however, continued to carry that same expression of bemusement and pain. "I hate what they've done," said one teenager. "They've messed things up on the rest of us." More than 200 residents were evacuated from the locality during the afternoon as police and bomb-disposal experts moved in to investigate two premises next door to the community centre which Tanweer and Hussain had attended.
A controlled explosion was carried out at the site as police continued to expand their cordon around the Tanweer family home.
Residents who had time to pack were told to bring enough provisions for at least three days. With nowhere else to go, some bedded down last night in a local sports centre.
If the city felt under siege, and Beeston more so, one could only imagine how things were for the families of Hussain and Tanweer.
It was a phone call from Hussain's mother to police, in which she reported her son missing, which had led to the bombers being identified.
Back at city hall, at least one person hadn't forgotten them. Leeds University's imam, Hassan Al-Katib, urged the police to bring to justice whomever it was had got the youngsters "to commit this carnage". In the meantime, he said, the families of the boys deserved "our full support and prayer".