Violence can never rid us of violence

THIS attack did not happen outside my mosque and I did not know those involved, yet I am personally affected.

But not only because I am Muslim, like those targeted. It is far bigger than that.

This is yet another attack on our great city – race and religion shouldn’t come into it. This is terrorism, extremism, and it has no religion.

These attacks are barbaric. The people committing them are bent on dividing us. Only unity will help us to fight them.

London has all types of people. Our diversity is our strength and we should always treasure that. Yesterday, the imam held back violence at the scene. He was right. Violence can never be resolved by violence. Ignorance is partially behind these attacks. But there is a lot of hate rhetoric as well.

There is so much we can do. Mosques need to be open, to allow people to come in and listen. Joining together is the way we can defeat this.