Family of London attack suspect ‘massively shocked’
Islamophobia in UK breeds vicious circle: Experts
LONDON: The family of a man suspected of driving a rented van into Muslim worshippers after they left prayers at a north London mosque said they are devastated at the “madness” of the attack.
The vehicle swerved into the group of worshippers, mainly of North and West African origin, after they left prayers in the early hours of Monday at the Muslim Welfare House and the nearby Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, one of the biggest in Britain, injuring 11.
Police said it was clearly targeted at Muslims and Prime Minister Theresa May described it as a “sickening” terrorist attack.
A 47-year-old man was restrained by locals at the scene and police later arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder and terrorism offenses. He is still being questioned by detectives.
The suspect was named by British media as Darren Osborne, 47, a father of four, who lived in the Welsh capital Cardiff. In a statement given to local media on behalf of his family, his nephew Ellis Osborne said: “We are massively shocked; it’s unbelievable, it still hasn’t really sunk in.
“We are devastated for the families, our hearts go out to the people who have been injured. It’s madness. It is obviously sheer madness.”
The incident at Finsbury Park was the fourth attack in Britain since March and the third to involve a vehicle deliberately driven at pedestrians.
The latest attack comes at a tumultuous time for the government with Britain starting complex divorce talks with the EU and May negotiating with a small Northern Irish party to stay in power after losing her parliamentary majority in a snap election that backfired.
An imam from the Muslim Welfare House who stepped in to protect the driver from the angry crowd after the incident was hailed as a hero in British newspapers on Tuesday.
“We found that a group of people quickly started to collect around him... and some tried to hit him either with kicks or punches,” Mohammed Mahmoud told reporters. “We managed to surround him and to protect him from any harm.”
Security Minister Ben Wallace said the man was not known to the security services and police said they believed he was acting alone.
They were carrying out searches of addresses in Cardiff where the vehicle hire company that the van was rented from was based.
Meanwhile, British commentators and Islamic leaders worry that the attack at the mosque was the depressingly logical outcome of demonization by tabloid headline writers and rightwing demagogues who portray Muslims as the enemy within.
From opposition politicians to J.K. Rowling and cartoonists in the liberal press, condemnation is building against the swirling currents of hatred that led to the crime outside the mosque.
Tommy Robinson, former leader of the far-right English Defense League, made the link explicit in describing Osborne’s attack as “revenge” for the bloodshed in London.
Rowling, for her part, pointed to heated rhetoric by Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins, as the Harry Potter author tweeted: “Let’s talk about how the #FinsburyPark terrorist was radicalized.”
After the suicide bombing at a pop concert in Manchester last month, Hopkins had tweeted: “Western men. These are your wives. Your daughters. Your sons. Stand up. Rise up. Demand action. Do not carry on as normal. Cowed.”
According to government statistics, British whites accounted for 91 of 260 arrests for terrorismrelated offenses last year, an increase of 28 percent from 2015 and the only ethnic group to show an increase.
Anti-Muslim hate crimes are also rising yearly and there have been particular spikes after incidents like the attack in London and the November 2015 massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
Until this week, the assassination of lawmaker Jo Cox a year ago was the most visible manifestation of the darker undercurrents at play among far-right fanatics in Britain.
But many Muslims say they have long been suffering from daily abuse which has only intensified as tensions surface over flashpoints such as Europe’s refugee crisis and Britain’s Brexit vote to quit the EU.
Some attacks are physical or verbal, others involve graffiti, the hurling of faeces and vomit, or the smearing of bacon on car windscreens.
Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell Mama, a group that collates figures on anti-Muslim incidents, said the hatred that appeared to have motivated Osborne did not come from nowhere.
The biggest factor fomenting anti-Muslim feeling is “Islamist violence,” he said.