As London reels from yet another blow, British celebrities have taken to social media to point the finger at tabloid papers.
Singer Lily Allen and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling were among voices that slammed the UK media in the wake of the Sunday night attack which saw a van driven into a crowd of Muslims leaving a mosque in London's Finsbury Park.
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Police have launched a counter-terrorism investigation as a van incident leaves one person dead and eight injured in the north London suburb of Finsbury Park.
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London attack: one dead, eight injured
Police have launched a counter-terrorism investigation as a van incident leaves one person dead and eight injured in the north London suburb of Finsbury Park.
Allen, who's recently been vocal in her criticism of the government following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, tweeted "Radicalised by British media" shortly after the news broke that the suspect was a white male shouting that he wanted to "kill all Muslims".
Radicalized by the British media. #FinsburyPark
— lily #labourtine🎈 (@lilyallen) June 19, 2017
Rowling criticised the Daily Mail for its choice to describe the terror suspect as a "white van driver" instead of "terrorist", implying a double standard in the reporting of the attack compared to the recent attack at London Bridge and Borough Market, where eight people were killed and dozens injured.
The Mail has misspelled 'terrorist' as 'white van driver.' Now let's discuss how he was radicalised. pic.twitter.com/HPw2czZiV9
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 19, 2017
Rowling also called out "victim-blaming in the usual newspapers" as "disgusting", in reference to headlines describing the mosque that was targeted as having links to radical Islamic extremism.
Victim blaming in the usual newspapers is disgusting. #FinsburyPark mosque won an award for combating extremism. https://t.co/xhmfpmSubN
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 19, 2017
She also retweeted others posting anti-Islam headlines from the Daily Mail, The Sun and others, as well as posting a screenshot of a tweet from right-wing columnist Katie Hopkins that called for western men to "rise up" against Islamic terrorists. With it, Rowling wrote: "Let's talk about how the #FinsburyPark terrorist was radicalised".
Again: let's talk about how the #FinsburyPark terrorist was radicalised. pic.twitter.com/t3O6q5zfXq
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 19, 2017
The pair who are known for their progressive views have found themselves in unexpected agreement with another, more unlikely, British celebrity: Piers Morgan, who's currently US editor-at-large for the Daily Mail online, and tweeted that the "sickening" attack should be treated in the same way as any other terror attack would be.
Sickening terror attack on British Muslims outside their place of worship in London. At least one dead, many more wounded. #finsburymosque
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 19, 2017
Islamophobic extremist terrorism is as disgusting as Islamist extremist terrorism & must be treated as such. #FinsburyParkTerrorAttack
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 19, 2017
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