On Monday, June 19, a van drove onto the pavement near a North London mosque and plowed into a group of Muslims who had just left evening prayers. Witnesses said that the driver shouted out that he wanted to kill Muslims. He was reportedly pinned down by survivors of the attack until police arrived. One person, Makram Ali, 51, was killed and up to nine were injured.
This would be the third time that an incident involving the use of a large vehicle to attack bystanders had occurred in Europe. Specifically, prior to this incident; "Islamic" terrorists used the same tactic on the Westminster and London Bridge.
People attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester were also recently targeted by a suicide bomber. In comparison, the latest attack on Muslims was also was considered a Terrorist Attack.
Mounting tragedies in Britain
The name of the suspect was revealed to be Darren Osborne, 47, who was apparently unknown to authorities prior to the attack. On Friday, he was convicted of terrorism-related murder. British Prime Minister Theresa May made an appearance with faith leaders at the Finsbury Park Mosque hours after the incident to ease the community's concerns. She promised that the government would look to enable resources and review the security at mosques. Theresa May had already made another "public" -- although brief -- appearance last week after a tragic fire at Grenfell Tower.
London's first Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan made a statement at the site saying that the as Londoners could not let the terrorists succeed. He said the incident was an attack on all of their shared values and that there would be zero tolerance for hate crimes. The Associated Press reported that after the incident, the same group of people attacked were outraged and tried to attack the driver.
But they were stopped by a local Imam named Mohammad Mahmoud having others shield the attacker from being beaten until the police arrived.
Community outrage
The terrorist attack took place in front of the Muslim Welfare House whose chief executive Toufik Kacimi said that the driver showed that he was not mentally ill in case he might want to defend himself as such in order to get away from a conviction.
He claimed that the driver said that "I did my bit" after the attack and adding that by making the statement, the attacker made it clear that he was not mentally ill. The AP report also some insight by a member of the community who made a social comparison with other attacks that had taken place.
For instance, one student said that this attack did not get the same kind of sympathy that the others did. Theresa May said that the police arrived in one minute and that in eight minutes the authorities had determined that it was a terrorist attack. As stated in a link provided earlier about Theresa May's public appearance at Grenfell Tower was criticized for not being as sympathetic to Grenfell survivors as Jeremy Corbyn had been.
