Friday 31 March 2017

The London Terror Attack - Ignoring the Pundits

When Khalid Masood launched his murderous 82-second attack in Whitehall last week, I was thousands of miles away in the Philippines, enjoying the last few days of a great holiday. That's the trouble with getting away from it all - sometimes "it" comes looking for you. Along with all my Filipino friends and relatives, I read the details of this atrocity with horror and disbelief (the Philippines is no stranger to Islamist violence). I resolved that, after our return on Tuesday the 28th, I would go as soon as I could to the scene of the attack and pay tribute to the slain: Aysha Frade, Leslie Rhodes, Kurt Cochran, PC Keith Palmer and to all the injured victims.
I went yesterday, crossing Westminster Bridge from the tube station and walking to St Thomas's Hospital, from where so many staff and paramedics rushed to help the dead, dying and injured only seven days previously. In the hospital branch of Marks and Spencers I bought a bunch of flowers and a card. After writing some words of condolence on the card, I placed it with the flowers on the first memorial on Westminster Bridge. You can just about see the card in the photograph above.
Then, I walked along the left-hand side of the bridge, following the route of Masood's deadly journey. I found it really difficult to reconcile the sights I saw - the groups of chattering tourists, the people taking photos of Big Ben - with the carnage that happened on the 22nd. That changed when I got to Parliament Square, where I found an extensive floral tribute opposite the Houses of Parliament.
Along with many others, I spent a long time looking at the flowers and, more importantly, the dedications, many of which were heartbreakingly moving. After a time, I became choked with emotion and decided to go elsewhere.


Now, displays of public grief similar to this have been derided in the past, most noticeably by Boris Johnson. When commenting upon the mourning of the Hillsborough dead by the people of Liverpool, he said:
"They (Liverpudlians) see themselves whenever possible as victims, and resent their victim status; yet at the same time they wallow in it".
Boris has apologised unreservedly since, but I believe that he was expressing a kind of aversion that a section of media commentators, left, right and centre, feel for outpourings of public sympathy. While in the Philippines, I read a Guardian article in which the writer said that leaving flowers at the site of terrorist attacks, lighting up the Eiffel Tower in red, white and blue in solidarity with London, etc, gave the terrorists "the oxygen of publicity". All complete nonsense, of course - the terrorists, in this case apparently ISIS, generate their own publicity through their online magazines and by dropping off tapes at Al-Jazeera. I am very proud to have paid tribute to the people of many nations who suffered and died on the 22nd; I am proud of the way us Londoners of all faiths united publicly in defiance of this evil crime.

As might be expected, the far Right and the far Left made their media presence felt by offering their own peculiar interpretations of the event. Nigel Farage weighed in by saying that the attack was a consequence of multiculturalism; Stop the War Coalition issued a statement saying something like this:
"We deplore the attack in Westminster, but we really must point out that this attack can be blamed on the illegal, imperialist invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan."
Refuting Mr Farage, as a primary school teacher for 34 years who has taught in many multicultural schools, I fail to see how making Diwali cards and learning about World faiths could lead to a terrorist atrocity. As for the predictable (and tediously repetitive) comment by Stop the War, it only needs to be pointed out that the Westminster attack was carried out by a British-born convert to Islam - not an Iraqi or Afghan.
Standing in front of the floral displays yesterday, I found myself fervently hoping that no more attacks like this would happen again anywhere. At the same time, a voice in my head kept telling me that more attacks are inevitable. Perhaps the last word should go to Katriona Murphy, of North London, who left the message in the picture below - Why?
7/4/2017 - as of today, the toll of innocent dead victims of this attack has risen to five. Andreea Cristea, the 31 year-old Romanian lady who was knocked into the Thames during the attack on 22nd March, has died in hospital. May she and the other victims rest in peace. The question in the last photograph remains unanswered.

3 comments:

  1. From the news coverage, I gained the impression that this killer was a lone operator with no links to Daesh. He was a psychopath who once stabbed someone in the face just because of a disagreement. He had previously discussed overcoming urges to kill. I conclude this attack had little to do with terrorism and everything to do with the fact he was that comparative rarity: someone who was dangerously mentally ill, the kind of person you have written about a number of times on this blog before.

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    1. I think you are probably correct, Nev. During the past year, my two bete noirs - terrorism and mental patients who kill - seem to be merging into one. The police seem to be of the opinion that he acted alone. Nonetheless, he was said to have been "on the fringes" of terrorism, and perhaps his ideological beliefs and his mental illness coalesced into one. All of which points to the usefulness of such individuals to Daesh and other terrorist groups. Even if they have no connection with Daesh/Isis, they will still claim them as their supporters.

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  2. Daesh would claim Jack the Ripper as one their supporters if they thought it might benefit them.

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