The Finsbury Park attack (placeholder)

Last updated on: June 19, 2017 at 9:39 am by Jane the Actuary

The Finsbury Park attack (placeholder) 2017-06-19T09:39:39-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFinsbury_Park_mosque_-_panoramio.jpg; Olof Lagerkvist [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Last night, a reportedly-48 year old white man plowed into a crowd near the Finsbury Park mosque in London. This is a mosque which, somewhat over a decade ago, was breeding terrorists, and was shut down, then later reopened “under new management” and, from all reports, claims the mantle of moderation.

Here’s the obligatory link to a relatively recent story on the incident: from the BBC. One person is dead (though apparently not necessarily as a result of the attack), and 10 injured.

After reading initial reports last night, I figured that this morning there would be more details. There weren’t. Reportedly, this is because of British law on criminal cases; according to a seemingly-credible statement on twitter, since he survived the attack and will stand trial, there are restrictions on what the British press may report, and on what details the British police may provide to the press. Near as I can tell, they have not released his name, and I haven’t seen any indication of when this information will be coming. (The BBC article gives his age, which suggests that this was released, but nothing more.)

Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that this attack affirms her plans to increase internet regulation, with more government abilities to access information, e.g., as shared in What’s App texts, and with more censorship. Newsweek reports that the attack “plays in ISIS’s hands.” And on twitter there are demands that the news media devote as much figurative ink to this attack as to the prior attacks by Islamic extremists, and prove their even-handedness by labelling this as “terror” — a label which it seems to be should be reserved for acts which are organized by a specific group or are at least connected up with one, especially since everyone had seemed to settle on “hate crime” for attacks on minority groups vs. attacks on the general population.

So we don’t really know much, but it seems very out-of-character for a UKIP hooligan to turn to the suicide attack that’s the stock-in-trade of Islamicists. And it does seem to have been a suicide attack. That is, it’s widely known that London has CCTV cameras everywhere, so I assume that he knew that he wouldn’t be able to just disappear. And the BBC reports a witness saying, “kill me, I’ve done my job”, which suggests that his expectation was some variation of suicide-by-cop. Maybe more details will arise that suggest this isn’t the case, that he thought he would be able to drive away from the scene.

Now, none of this is good news. Was he motivated by a general animus towards Muslims? Had he had specific run-ins with Muslims? Was he personally affected by the recent attacks? Was he “radicalized” by anti-Muslim groups in the UK (which I doubt were any sort of pro-Christian group, since that country has now become so secular), in the same way as we’ve been tossing around ideas that the D.C. shooter was “radicalized” by anti-Trump politicians and Facebook groups? Did he choose this mosque because of its past terror links, or because he believed those terror links to be ongoing, or because it just happened to be prominent?

I’ve labelled this post as a “placeholder” in the expectation that we’ll have more information to chew on over the course of the day. But we may not, really, if the British legal system withholds his name.

Image from Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFinsbury_Park_mosque_-_panoramio.jpg; Olof Lagerkvist [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Previous Post

June 19, 2017

"Swears" and the social compact

Next Post

June 20, 2017 What the [asterisk] is going on with Illinois' public universities?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What message did Jeremiah send to the exiles in Babylon to encourage them?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Build houses and seek the city's good Pray for Judah only Return and revolt Fast and do not marry