LONDON: The attack on Muslims returning home after tarawih prayers in Finsbury Park, north London late last night reeks of a tit-for-tat revenge — ramming into crowds, screaming death threats to Muslims and carrying knives with the intention to kill.
One worshipper has died but reports are coming in that the elderly victim was already receiving first aid from members of the congregation, after collapsing when the attack occurred.
Thus, according to police, it is still to be established if his death was caused by the attack.
Ten people have been injured when a van rammed into worshippers in what is now categorised as a “terrorist act”.
The driver, a white male, was heard screaming, “I’m going to kill all Muslims” and later when being led to the police van, he shouted: “Kill me! Kill me!”
The attack happened outside the Muslim Welfare House, close to the Finsbury Park Mosque, as the area was busy with worshippers who had been attending Ramadan night prayers.
It happened just as the country is reeling from the Grenfell Tower blaze that claimed 58 lives, the London Bridge and Westminster attacks.
The Muslim Council of Britain secretary-general Harun Khan has expressed his shock and outrage that worshippers had been targeted.
He was reported to have said, “Shocked and outraged to hear a van intentionally running over worshippers leaving Ramadan night prayers”.
Witnesses accounts pointed to “a deliberate attack against innocent Muslims”.
“And if that’s confirmed by authorities, it should be classed as a terror attack, no doubt about that,” Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation Muslim organisation, has said.
The European Jewish Congress condemned the attack, which was done “to escalate tensions in the country”.
Its president, Dr Moshe Kantor, said in a BBC interview, it was an “unconscionable attack” during the holy month of Ramadan.
“We condemn this attack and we stand firmly beside our Muslim brothers and sisters.
“An attack on one religion is an attack on all religions and all people and faiths must stand together against terror, ” he added.
There certainly has been a spike in the number of attacks on Muslims after the recent attacks in Manchester and London.
Talking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Tell MAMA, which monitors anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, said: “We saw that very clearly after Manchester, a very high peak, we saw that clearly after London Bridge, we didn’t see it after Westminster.
“These peaks of anti-Muslim hate incidences reported do go up in very high numbers after terrorist incidences.”
However, hours after the incident, the former The English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson was quick to accuse the mosque of “creating terrorists” to justify the attack by accusing the mosque of past links with extremists.
In the early hours of the morning, there was much confusion as to which Finsbury Park Mosque reports were referring.
Worshippers were coming out of both the Finsbury Park Mosque and the nearby Muslim Welfare House.
The Finsbury Park Mosque was in recent years investigated for its links with terrorists organisations and hate preachers such as Abu Hamzah Al-Masri.
The attack, happening just a week before Hari Raya Aidilfitri, will mean extra security and patrols will take place around mosques throughout the UK as Muslims go to pray and celebrate.