The newspapers today cover extensively the horrific murder of a young man, believed to have been a member of the British Armed Forces, in an indescribably brutal attack in Woolwich yesterday.
As details emerge on the motives of the murderers, the religious exclamations and rants uttered at the scene of the crime have begun a familiar process of far right exploitation of terrorist acts to demonise British Muslims with terminology used by sections of the media oiling the wheels of anti-Muslim bigotry.
The Guardian quotes the English Defence League leader, Stephen Lennon, as saying:
"They're chopping our soldiers' heads off. This is Islam. That's what we've seen today. They've cut off one of our army's heads off on the streets of London.
"Our next generation are being taught through schools that Islam is a religion of peace. It's not. It never has been. What you saw today is Islam. Everyone's had enough. There has to be a reaction, for the government to listen, for the police to listen, to understand how angry this British public are."
While last night the far right leader called for "feet on the streets" in a tweet urging EDL members to rally in Woolwich.
The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, in a tweet called for a ‘United against Muslim Terror’ national protest in London on Saturday.
Jamie Lewis in the Independent remarks on the easy target made of Muslims by far right groups arguing that the ‘furore’ generated by the EDL and BNP on twitter was ‘unsettling’.
Effects on Muslim communities have already been felt with reports of attacks on mosques in Braintree, Essex and Gillingham, Kent.
MP for Braintree, Brooks Newmark, tweeted "Local mosque in Braintree attacked by man with knives and incendiary device. Man arrested. No one injured."
A man has also been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage in relation to the attack on the mosque in Gillingham.
Pauline Neville Jones, the former security minister, on this morning BBC Radio 4 Today programme, repeated claims made by the late Baroness Thatcher after the London bombings of July 7, that Muslim leaders are not clear enough in their condemnation of violent co-religionists who act in the name of their faith. As George Eaton, editor of The Staggers, remarks, to do so “is to perpetuate the myth of collective guilt”.
Lord Carlile, the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation meanwhile has argued that the events of yesterday should force a rethink of the Communications Data Bill, saying that police access to internet communications shows how important information can be to preventing terrorist attacks.
The Muslim Council of Britain has issued a statement condemning the ‘barbaric attack’ and calling for police to ‘calm tensions’. Senior member of the MCB, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, interviewed by the BBC said ‘This has nothing to do with Islam’.
Sobering reactions have also come from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Mayor Johnson tweeted last night:
"It is completely wrong to blame this killing on the religion of Islam.”
“The fault lies with the warped mindset of those who did it and for the sake of the victim and his family the killers need to be brought to justice."
Johnson also denied any correlation between with attack and British foreign policy, stating:
"But it also equally wrong to try to draw any link between this murder and British foreign policy or the actions of British forces who are risking their lives abroad for the sake of freedom."
It is difficult to square the rejection of foreign policy as a motivating factor when the attackers appeared to have alluded to Britain’s involvement in wars abroad. One of them is alleged to have said, "I killed him because he kills Muslims over there and I am fed up that people kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan."
The enduring significance of foreign policy as a motivating factor has been noted in the past by the Communities and Local Government select committee inquiry into the ‘Prevent’ strand of the UK’s counter-terrorism policy. In its report published in March 2010, the committee stated, “…the evidence seems to indicate that politics, policy and socio-economics may be more important factors in the [radicalisation] process.”It also urged that “attempts to find solutions and engagement with preventative work should primarily address the political challenges.”
The Prime Minister in a statement this morning distanced British Muslims from the attacks saying the actions were “a betrayal of Islam – and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country.
“There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act.
Cameron said that “We will defeat violent extremism by standing together” and “by challenging the poisonous narrative of extremism on which this violence feeds.
“The perpetrators were trying to divide us - but it will only bring us together and make us stronger.”
The exploitation of the ‘poisonous narrative of extremism’ by the English Defence League, and initial reports of attacks on mosques in Essex and Kent, shows that ‘a poisonous narrative’ infects those inspired by extremisms of different kinds.
The Prime Minister’s words echo the statements issued by British Muslim leaders, that we must stand together in challenging the toxic teachings of those who deny our common humanity, whether they be of those inspired by the warped narrative of Al Qaeda or of those influenced by the far right.
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