Mixed and tolerant community that has been left appalled

BY the police cordon on Seven Sisters Road, a woman stood with a homemade placard. Alison, pictured, a resident, had heard about the attack early in the morning and hastily made the sign before heading to the scene.

“Leave Our Muslim Neighbours Alone,” it said on the front. On the back: “This is not a war. It’s just a few deranged individuals acting out their demented macho fantasies. They are not with us. We love our mixed community.”

It’s a message that sums up the community spirit in Finsbury Park. The streets may be shabbier than those a mile away in Islington – where Jeremy Corbyn lives – but people are proud to live in an area known for its tolerance. When people say the multicultural “experiment” has failed, they have clearly not walked down Blackstock Road, where Turkish barbers and Algerian grocers sit alongside Sardinian trattorias and hipster pizza joints. The middle classes here are staunchly Labour – save for a respectable number who vote Green – and the attack has left them appalled.

“I’ve lived here for about 37 years and it has always been lovely because it’s so mixed,” Alison said. “Muslims are our neighbours and I want them to know they’re not alone.”

All morning, people came to leave flowers outside Finsbury Park Mosque – a focal point for the Muslim community here. The mosque earned notoriety through its links to Abu Hamza. But that was more than a decade ago and since then it has worked hard to repair its reputation, holding open days and maintaining links with the local church.

There was a moment of tension when Theresa May arrived at the mosque amid a heavy police presence. But it was soon over. A lady called Tracey wheeled a plastic trolley up to the police cordon and pulled out a crate of bottled water, gratefully received by officers standing in the baking heat.

“I’m quite horrified by this. Where I live, I’ve got Muslim neighbours on this side, Orthodox Jewish people on the other. We all get on,” she said.

Outside the Al Baraka Supermarket, a group of Algerian men were discuss-