In a deadly attack on Wednesday in London a 52-year-old British man Khalid Masood drove a car into pedestrians on the pavement along the south side of Westminster Bridge and Bridge Street, injuring more than 50 people, three of them fatally. After the car crashed into the perimeter fence of the Palace grounds, Masood abandoned it and ran into the New Palace Yard where he fatally stabbed an unarmed police officer. He was then shot by an armed police officer and died at the scene. Four people died during the attack. This attacker was thought to have been inspired by Islamist ideology. An ISIS-affiliated news agency claimed that the extremist group was behind Wednesday's attack, which left 29 people requiring hospital treatment. Six people remain critically ill. Reports that he was shot by a member of Defence Secretary Michael Fallon's close protection team - rather than one of Parliament's armed police - have not been confirmed. Detectives have confirmed that the attack was over within 82 seconds.
Masood was born with the name Adrian Russell Ajao until he converted to Islam. He had a criminal past but his most recent conviction, for possessing a knife, was in December 2003, and he had never been convicted of a terrorism offense. The attack was the first mass-casualty terrorist outrage in Britain since 2005 when 52 people died in the July 7 bomb attacks on the London public transportation system.
This attack adds to the long list of terrorist attacks all over the world.
“Yesterday, an act of terrorism tried to silence our democracy,” Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament, “We are not afraid, and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.” She called the violence “an attack on free people everywhere.”
Even all the way in Newtown, Connecticut there has a been a reaction to these tragic events.
“I think that it is very upsetting and ISIS again has claimed responsibility,” said NHS sophomore Matt Jewell. Though, citing ISIS, Jewell also said, “It’s especially unsettling for this case because it didn't come directly from a member of it.”
This case, along with all other terrorist attacks have been under debate on how to deal with terrorism. President Donald Trump has been attempting to push forward new laws to keep citizens from certain countries to enter the United States. After September 11th, 2001 the U.S government also employed a global surveillance to monitor U.S citizens as well as citizens from other countries. But, this terrorist attack could be very difficult to stop in the future because the attacker was a homegrown British man.
“I don't think it's possible to fix this kind of terrorism because that could be there country of origin and any person cannot seem to be a terrorist and next thing you know they kill a lot of people for attention,” said Jewell.
As a majority of the well-known terrorist attacks taking place are supposedly coming from ISIS as this one was, it is causing a ripple effect on how non-Muslims perceive Muslims.
Many Americans probably cannot deny when they think of Muslims they automatically think of the radicalized Muslims who have caused pain and misery to thousands.
“I think it’s a huge problem because with events like this people in general are starting to become increasingly prejudiced towards Muslims,” Said NHS sophomore Chris Maturo. Adding onto that, Maturo also said, “The only way it seems to fix this problem is to stop terrorism in general.”
And with this case of a radicalized Muslim being born and raised in the country he led the attack on, the line between radicalized and moderate Muslims might become even more blurred.
Image Courtesy of Hindustan Times