SINCE THE terrorist attack on Muslims at Finsbury Park, Prime Minister Theresa May has spoken out about the need to make it clear how unacceptable Islamophobia is in our society and how we need to crack down on it. To which the obvious response is: what took you so long?
The Muslim community has continued with its calm and measured response to the Finsbury Park attack. Hundreds of people attended a vigil on Monday night, held near the Muslim Welfare House mosque where the attack took place. London Police Commissioner Cressida Dick was present – a welcome sign that the police are taking this incident seriously. That doesn’t mean the authorities have no further questions to answer.
The man who drove the van into a crowd of Muslims who were trying to help an ill man has been identified as Darren Osborne, aged 47, who was living in Wales. He has been arrested on suspicion of murder, of attempted murder and of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism. He was known to have expressed Islamophobic sentiments in the past, and to have threatened to kill Muslims after a drinking session shortly before he hired a van and drove to London to “do his bit” towards that goal.
This leaves us with two important questions to answer. •First, how do we make Islamophobia socially unacceptable, so that comments like that in the pub are met with disapproval by fellow drinkers? A crackdown could easily fire up UKIP and organisations further to its right, such as Britain First, and cause a backlash, escalating the problems. Pressure from the right has caused mainstream political parties to edge rightwards and play the race card over the last couple of decades. The parties will need more than words to reverse their direction. •Second, can the Prevent programme, or anything which replaces it, be widened out so that it applies to Islamophobia as well as whatever it applies to now? At the moment, the programme is basically there to encourage communities to “shop a Muslim”. Even when concerns were reported to it, it could not cope with investigating them seriously. Nonetheless, if an Asian person had been sat in a coffee shop shouting out about wanting to murder Christians, the community would probably have performed a citizens’ arrest then and there. How come a Welsh man can sit in a pub cursing Muslims and threatening to “do some damage” – and the pub throws him out, leaving him free to do that damage?
We need to stop this circle of terror. In the wake of the Finsbury Park attack, right wingers rejoiced on social media. Are the police cataloguing all these sites, in preparation for a serious investigation of the people posting on them? The right’s jubilation was followed by a similar surge of comments from hardline Islamic sites calling for revenge.
Theresa May has a herculean task ahead if she is to live up to her promises.
•The police are asking for anyone who was present in Finsbury Park during the terror attack, or who knew the suspect, Darren Osborne, to contact the police, in confidence, on 0800-789 321. The police are also asking for anyone with videos of the attack to upload it on: https://ukpoliceimageappeal.co.uk
•Read more about it: Finsbury Park: it’s one dead, 8 in hospital Muslims run over as they return from prayer
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