Man drives van into crowd
Attacker targets Muslims leaving mosque in London
LONDON — British authorities and Islamic leaders moved swiftly to ease concerns in the Muslim community after a man plowed a large van into a crowd of worshippers outside a north London mosque early Monday, injuring at least nine people.
British media identified the suspect as Darren Osborne, 47-yearold father of four who was living in Cardiff, Wales. British Security Minister Ben Wallace said authorities were aware of rising farright activity but the suspect was not known to them prior to the attack.
Police are treating the incident as a terror attack. One man died at the scene, although he had been receiving first aid at the time and it wasn’t clear if he died as a result of the attack or from something else.
The chaos outside the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park follows three Islamist-inspired attacks over the past three months that have triggered a surge in hate crimes around Britain.
The Metropolitan Police Service immediately announced it was putting extra patrols on the streets to protect the public.
Police will assess the security of mosques and provide any additional resources needed ahead of celebrations marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Prime Minister Theresa May announced.
“This was an attack on Muslims near their place of worship,” she said in a televised address. “And like all terrorism, in whatever form, it shares the same fundamental goal. It seeks to drive us apart — and to break the precious bonds of solidarity and citizenship that we share in this country. We will not let this happen.”
The attack occurred about 12:20 a.m. local time when a speeding van swerved into worshippers who were giving first aid to a man outside the mosque. That man later died.
Police said the attacker who drove the van has been arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of terrorism, including murder and attempted murder. A mob surrounded him and witnesses said the crowd began attacking him. A local imam, Mohammed Mahmoud, said he organized a group of people and shielded the man until police could take him away.
“By God’s grace, we were able to protect him from harm,” he said.
Toufik Kacimi, chief executive of the Muslim Welfare House, told Sky News the attack clearly targeted Muslims leaving evening prayers during Ramadan.
“We have a witness saying that the guy who did what he did, the driver of the van, said ‘I did my bit,’ which means he’s not mentally ill,” Kacimi said. “This person was conscious. He did what he did deliberately to hit and kill as many Muslims as possible, so he is a terrorist.”
But Kacimi said there was no need for the community to panic, because police and government officials have been “very, very supportive.”
“At this stage, we are calling for calm,” he said.
Mayor Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, urged residents to focus on their shared values and to stand together during an unprecedented period in the capital’s history. The attack Monday hits a community already feeling targeted in the fallout from the London Bridge killings and other attacks blamed on Islamic extremists.
British security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official policy, said hate crimes directed at Muslims have increased nearly five-fold in the wake of several attacks in Britain.
“While this appears to be an attack on a particular community, like the terrible attacks in Manchester, Westminster and London Bridge, it is also an assault on all our shared values of tolerance, freedom and respect,” Khan said.
Vowing “zero tolerance” for hate crimes, Khan declared “we will not allow these terrorists to succeed ... we will stay a strong city.”
The attack laid bare the frustrations of Muslims who feel they’ve been unfairly equated with the extremists who carry out atrocities in the name of Islam.
Ali Habib, a 23-year-old student, said residents are angry that the mosque attack hasn’t been portrayed in the same light as other attacks across Britain.
“There has been an outpouring of sympathy for all for the recent terror attacks but hardly a whisper on this attack,” he said. “People are both scared and angry. Parents are scared to send their children to evening prayers. I don’t think people understand how much these attacks affect all of us.”
The attack occurred outside the Muslim Welfare House, a small mosque with about 200 congregants. Nearby, evening prayer services had just concluded at the larger Finsbury Park Mosque, which had been associated with extremist ideology for several years after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. After those attacks, the mosque was shut down and reorganized and has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
Britain’s terror alert level is at “severe,” meaning security officials believe an attack is highly likely, and a series of extremist attacks have struck across the country in the last few months.