Finsbury mosque murderer was a terrorist, says former minister
THE Welshman who drove a van into worshippers outside a London mosque should be seen as a terrorist, according to a former foreign minister who scrutinised Britain’s intelligence agencies.
Darren Osborne, 48, was last week sentenced to a minimum of 43 years in prison after murdering Makram Ali, 51, when he used a van as a weapon to attack Muslim worshippers in London last year.
Kim Howells, the former Pontypridd MP who chaired the Intelligence and Security Committee, told the BBC: “He’s a terrorist. If he goes out to kill people simply because they are of a different colour or they believe something different, he’s a terrorist.”
Mr Howells argued that a reluctance by politicians to talk about the factors behind Islamic radicalism in the wake September 11 terrorist attacks had allowed other extremists to put forward their own version of reality.
He said: “These people believe that they have the answer. They are very often on the extremes. They won’t, for example, take opposing views seriously, and they won’t debate seriously as a consequences of that – and I’m afraid that that leads to polarisation and often to political shocks.”
Describing what he argues was a “disastrous way to proceed”, he said: “When, after 9/11 especially, some of us tried to talk about the malign influences of Wahabi Islam, about the way in which the Saudis especially were paying for this stuff throughout mosques right across Europe, right across the world, we were encouraged not to talk about it – certainly by the government that I was part of, and I am sure [by] governments subsequently, because it was felt that to say this was a bit too direct.”
When asked who was saying this, Mr Howells said the message came from “right up to the Prime Minister”.
He added: “The Foreign Office, where I was working at the time, were very, very reluctant to even use the word Islam.”
Calling for the condemnation of the likes of Osborne and other figures who are prepared to use violence, he said: “These are terrorists and they should be always denounced as terrorists and described as terrorists.”
The trial heard how Osborne had watched the BBC drama Three Girls about the grooming scandal in Rochdale and had become “obsessed” with Muslims.
Mr Howells said it was “nonsense” to suggest the drama should not have been shown.