Finsbury Park: Was attack on Muslim community treated differently?
Updated
Five hours after a van ploughed into a group of Muslims leaving evening prayers in London, police said they were treating it as a potential terrorist attack.
It was several hours too late for many of the Muslims who had witnessed the incident.
Many had already begun asking why something happening to their community was being viewed differently to other attacks, comparing the reaction to the London Bridge attack just two weeks ago.
"Whether he's a Christian or a Muslim, this is a terrorist attack," one young Muslim told Sky TV.
"Tomorrow I don't want to see, 'Oh he's got mental issues'. This was a terrorist attack.
"He was a white terrorist. He had a tattoo, so he wasn't a Muslim," another young man shouted over the top.
"He wasn't ill and he wasn't drunk, it was a terror attack," others interjected.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd was asked if authorities initially treated it more like a car crash than immediately assuming something more evil.
"We know that the police were on hand immediately," she said responding to questions on Sky TV.
"We know that they have treated it immediately as a suspected terrorist event."
But for five hours, witnesses to the crash — most of them younger Muslims — were becoming increasingly angry at the media's use of the word "incident".
Deputy Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, the senior national co-ordinator for Counter-Terrorism Policing, in the first press conference on the attack at 8:30am (local time) was also asked if the police had been tardy in calling it for what it was — a suspected attack.
"Given the methodology and given what was occurring and what's happened — the tragic incidents across the country — this had all the hallmarks of a terrorist incident," he said.
"That's why the counter-terrorism command were called out to investigate."
'Londoners will act together to protect themselves'
There'll be plenty of debate as to whether the Muslim community under possible attack was treated differently.
The British Muslim Council said over the past weeks and months Muslims have "endured many incidents of Islamophobia, and this is the most violent manifestation to date".
The Manchester attack perpetrated by an Islamic extremist happened late on Monday, May 22.
The London Bridge attack happened at 10:00pm on Saturday, June 3.
This attack is now the third in five weeks.
It's true the targets were Muslim and the suspected attacker appears not to have been.
But the authorities insist that doesn't change how first responders react.
Assistant Commissioner Basu also commended the group who detained the suspect until police arrested him.
"He was quickly and calmly given over to police," he said.
"That restraint was commendable by members of the community who must have been incredibly shaken, incredibly scared and incredibly angry.
"What it proves to me is that Londoners will act together to protect themselves but they will do so in a way that doesn't feed into terrorist and extremists' hands."
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, law-crime-and-justice, crime, police-sieges, united-kingdom
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