While police are still trying to piece together the events surrounding an attack near Finsbury Park mosque in northeast London early yesterday morning, what is clear is that the 48-year-old perpetrator had every intent of targeting and killing as many Muslims as he possibly could in driving his van into the faithful. He was detained at the scene by civilians who waited for 20 minutes for the first police units to respond to the incident.
Make no mistake, this terror attack is yet another in a string of such atrocities that have struck innocent civilians and soft targets in Britain these past weeks. That the victims in this incident were targeted by virtue of their faith makes no difference — everyone who has died or been injured are victims of extremists and their ideology either directly or indirectly.
Leaders of all right-thinking nations have been unified in facing the threat posed by those who provide Daesh, Al Qaida or any other terrorist organisation with support, or those who are motivated by their evil manifestos of murder and mayhem. Equally, those who follow or act inspired by Islamophobia are guilty too of extremism — and must be treated in the same manner by police and judicial systems.
London is a city that is hurting. It is a city that now seems under siege. There have been the attacks on its bridges, outside its Parliament, in Borough Market. And when it seems as if things could not get any worse, there was the tower block tragedy and now this Finsbury attack.
Now is the time for Londoners to unite as never before. Together, they can defeat a common enemy; defuse a common philosophy; defy a common emotion. Standing together, hate loses.
