Last night a white man driviing a white van ploughed into folks standing outside the Finsbury Park Mosque. One man is dead, ten are injured and the terrorist is in police custody. Yes he is a terrorist. Folks may say that he has mental health issues but the sort of people making that excuse fail to accept it as a defence when someone committing a terror attack is a Muslim. The man carried out an act of terror and apparently shouted out "I want to kill all Muslims" - he's a terrorist. That the attack took place outside a Mosque that has been a hotspot for extremism and hate makes no difference and is no justification.
The reactions to this attack have been varied. At the truly despicable end are those suggesting it is some sort of payback for other terror attacks.Do these folks making these vile comments want to crawl into the gutter with ISIS? Are we in the West not better than ISIS? Sadly on twitter the place is crawling with low life who do not appear to understand this. May the souls of such scum burn in hell for they are no better than those crowds in Gaza who chered as fottage of 9/11 came through. And just becuase this attack took place at Abu Hamza's old stomping ground makes no odds. There can be no "but" rider to any condemnation of the incident.
The Muslim Council of Britain calls for increased security at Mosques. Perhaps the MCB has not noticed that the Fuzz are a bit stretched right now? From across Europe all the evidence is that Mosques are low risk when it comes to terror attacks. I understand that Muslims will feel bruised and hurt right now and my thoughts are with the victims. But the MCB surely appreciated the hard data which shows that there are for more ISIS killers out there targetting non Muslims, especially Jews, than WASP terrorists targetting Muslims. The MCB might reconsider and make a more proportionate and reasonable response. Making exteme demands will not help bring Britain together.
I see Katie Hopkins is already being blamed by a few folks on twitter - the implication that she be silenced to stop this happening again. There is some irony in that Finsbury Park Mosque was rightly not shut down even though what was preached inside for many years was not just nasty extreme stuff but a direct incitement to violence and hate. Rightly the Mosque was not shut as it remains a community asset and gagging the loathsome Hopkins or trying to, in some way, blame her for this attack is pretty loathsome too.
One glimmer of light came at the Mosque itself from the worshippers who pinned the attacker to the ground, as he shouted that he wanted them to kill him. I could understand how folks might have been so angry as to consider this. But they did not. Instead they simply pinned him down until the fuzz rolled up. For that they deserve enormous credit, a rare moment of decency, restraint and humanity on another awful night in London.