Our President has the best intelligence information available to him, anywhere for anyone, bar none. Just ask him. The Russians did, he told them, and they believe it too.
Trump.45 has a special feel for the travails of the Great City of London, capital city of our Special Relationship ally. Britain has been struck recently by several high profile terrorist incidents with mass casualties, and our very own Trump.45 has proved ready, willing, and anxious to weigh in with his special prescriptive advice, comment, criticism, moralizing, and even some support, occasionally when warranted, for the good people, and when Trump.45 is done complaining about London’s democratically elected Mayor.
After all, even the best older democratic siblings or cousins require some helpful corrective advice from their better halves sometimes, in order to keep them on the straight and narrow path to winning all the time, and everywhere, no matter what.
Consider just the two most recent examples we have on record.
On Saturday, June 3 at around 10 PM London time, a terrorist attack was made on London Bridge by three men driving a rental van, Police responded promptly. There were mass casualties with 8 deaths, and 48 injured. The three perpetrators were shot dead by police. The attack was declared a terrorist incident by the U.K. government.
Remember London (and United Kingdom) time is 5 hours ahead of Washington DC (U.S. Eastern) time.
The bad news quickly hopped the Atlantic. Despite the fact that it was a Saturday evening and there was no Presidential Intelligence Briefing on offer for the weekend, Trump.45 was ever so quick on the draw.
One of the Trumpster’s favorite news feeds is the ever ready Drudge report. Drudge tweeted the news in a original post at 5:10 PM U.S. Eastern Time. Trump.45 glommed on to the Drudge alert 50 minutes after Zero Hour.
Trump.45 took to his favorite public address forum to notify his hundred million or so (at least that many, and so many more) social media followers with a series of tweets beginning at 6PM Washington Time first with a Drudge Report re-tweet, followed by two authentic Trump.45 original twits just 15 minutes and 22 minutes later. After a good night’s sleep, on Sunday June 4th, Trump.45 weighed in again with three more of his most valuable and welcome insights in a 20 minute period starting at 6:20 AM Washington Time. Six Trumpian Twits in 12 hours.
See the Trump.45 Twits in question below:
Note that Trump.45 was broadcasting on the social media airwaves within 1 hour of the first reports from London about this terrorist incident.
Jump forward to Sunday, June 19th at 12 AM London time. There was another terrorist attack by rental van in London’s Finsbury Park neighborhood. A man driving a rental van deliberately drove into a pedestrian crowd shouting hate slogans, causing mass casualties, killing one and injuring 10 others. The crowd subdued the man and turned him over to police. The U.K. government has declared this to be a terrorist attack.
London Terror Attack Carnage Finsbury Park (June 19, 2017)
A few details from the Sun newspaper report in London:
- A van ran down pedestrians on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, North London just after 12:20am on Monday morning
- One man was killed and ten people were injured outside Finsbury Park Mosque as worshippers left a late evening prayer meeting
- Police have confirmed they are treating the incident as a terror attack
- Scotland Yard arrested a man, 48, at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder following a massive armed response
- He reportedly screamed “kill me, kill all Muslims” as hero bystanders tackled him to the ground and was filmed blowing kisses from the back of the police van
- The man who died was already receiving first aid and it is not yet known if his death was caused by attack, Met Police have said
- Photos of the van used in the smash show it bearing the logo of a Wales-based rental company
- A heroic imam has been praised for his efforts to calm the chaotic situation in the aftermath of the attack.
- The Muslim Council of Britain has condemned the attack and has appealed for calm in its wake
- Prime Minister Theresa May described the attack as “sickening” and visited the scene after chairing a Cobra meeting
- Jeremy Corbyn said he was “totally shocked” and has today visited the scene
This London attack, with multiple casualties and a death, occurred at 7 PM Sunday Washington time. It has been picked up by the usual sources of news for Trump.45, Drudge and Breitbart, as well as the normal U.S mass media outlets. And, of course, as today is Monday, Trump.45 had his usual formal Daily Intelligence Briefing at the White House at 10:30 AM Washington time provided in person by CIA Director Pompeo, some15 hours after the event in question, in case Trump.45’s private intelligence sources failed to notify him.
As I write this at 7 PM on Monday evening (Washington time), fully 24-hours after the latest terrorist incident, as British authorities have identified the suspect and are providing details about his background and the circumstances surrounding the attack are clearer, Trump.45 has gone cold on his helpful advice, encouragement, moral lessons, and support for England and her people.
It’s not that Trump.45 has inexplicably gone Twitter silent, as the day’s real time haul (courtesy of the increasingly invaluable Trump Twitter Archive (Hats off for the great public service and historical resource it will eventually become).
Here is Trump.45’s busier than normal output (about double his 6 per day pace) for the day through 7 PM Eastern Time.
A very brief summary of Trump’s daily concerns for this Monday. Two condolence messages to 7 U.S. Navy sailors killed in an accidental ship collision off Japan, and to Otto Warmbier, an American prisoner released by North Korea; a shout out to the President of Panama who stopped by the White House for lunch and a chat today; six Twits (2 of them exact duplicates) for two Republican House by-election candidates in Georgia and South Carolina; a Twit about Democrats in general; two re-tweets about an astonishingly good popularity poll number (50% approval) and an opinion that opposition to Trump is an assault on America; and finally a plug for the second banana in Trump.45’s Anti-Impeachment Legal Team who went on Fox to try and repair the significant damage he caused yesterday’s on Sunday talk shows.
Thirteen Twitted items of immense importance for Trump.45’s psyche. But no time or space for offering his sage and necessary advice to our closest ally about their latest terror attack when he has been so vocally helpful to them in their struggles, just two weeks ago. Not even 140 characters worth after 24-hours, when he had six Twits worth in just 12 hours last time.
Has he run out of rhetorical gas?
Now, to put the obvious question to rest that perhaps Trump.45’s absence from the verbal scene on London Terror is the forced result of an especially hard day at the office solving the World’s most dangerous problems, let us consult the official White House Calendar of Trump.45’s Events at 1600 Daily.
It’s not like El Presidente has been especially taxed today. Thanks to the White House website, here is the official calendar of events he must endure on this day.
Here goes (Monday 6/17/17) straight from the horses’ mouth, as it were:*
1600 Daily: Everything White House for 6/19/17
JUNE 16, 2017 AT 12:45 PM ET BY 1600DAILY
TODAY’S EVENTS
- 10:30 AM: President Trump receives his daily intelligence briefing
- 11:30 AM: President Trump and the First Lady welcome President Juan Carlos Varela and Mrs. Varela of Panama
- 11:35 AM: President Trump meets with President Varela
- 11:50 AM: President Trump has a working luncheon with President Varela
- 1:30 PM: Press Gaggle with Press Secretary Sean Spicer
- 5:00 PM: President Trump participates in an American Technology Council roundtable
- 6:00 PM: President Trump participates in an American Technology Council reception
Trump.45 had a free morning except for the aforementioned Daily Intelligence Briefing at 10:30 AM.
This was followed by a leisurely 25-minute meeting and lunch with the President of Panama beginning at 11:30 AM (lasting for a total visit time of perhaps 2 hours all told), followed by a meeting with tech CEOs at 5 PM for an hour.
No real press of time on the President’s brain time and attention span in this series of events.
Take Away Lessons
Trump.45 was not time stressed. He was not information deprived or blinded. It was a work day and he was not off playing golf. He just returned from a great relaxing weekend at Camp David (short return trip) late Sunday morning.
Both London events were officially labeled by our closest ally as terrorist related. Both were mass casualty events (10 or more injured or dead). Both occurred in the same month, two weeks apart.
What’s the difference?
Victims and perpetrators changed places is what happened. The second set of victims just now were the wrong sort of religious believers to merit Trump.45’s sympathetic attention and concern. The actual story this time just can’t be crammed into the Radical Islamic Terrorist framework for messaging.
Especially since the Islamists in the vicinity of the tragedy restrained their own inherently blood-thirsty impulses, and turned the violent perpetrator, a normal looking Anglo, into police custody, unharmed, without prodding. Now that there is some real will power, following the moral precepts and teachings of their religion, against a most powerful temptation and insult to their faith.
Does Trump.45 have such a powerful faith?
And Trump.45’s Johnny on the Spot routine from June 3rd is Johnny Not on June 19th.
Which raises the existential question of When is a Terrorist Attack Not a Terrorist Attack? When Trump.45 says so, until he doesn’t.
Just ask him. He’ll tell you.
Here is a well constructed opinion piece from the Atlantic on the June 3 London Bridge Incident and Trump’s reaction by Peter Beinart :
Why Trump Criticized a London Under Attack
The narcissism generally comes first. Early Saturday evening, an hour after first retweeting a Drudge Report alert about the London terrorist attack, Donald Trump declared that, “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!” In other words, London proves him right. Everything does. When Omar Mateen murdered 49 people at an Orlando nightclub last June, Trump tweeted, “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism.” That same month, when The Wall Street Journal reported that NATO was considering creating a new intelligence coordinator to assist in the fight against terrorism, Trump—who wasn’t even yet the Republican presidential nominee—explained, “It’s all because of me.”
After the self-glorification came a slap at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who, according to Trump, had responded to the terrorist attack by claiming there was “no reason to be alarmed!” (That’s wrong. Khan had actually told Londoners not to be alarmed by the increased police presence on their streets). On its face, this Trump tweet was more puzzling. Khan is a mayor, not a prime minister, and most Americans have no idea who he is. Why raise his profile?
The answer is that Khan helps Trump articulate his new, and still not widely understood, brand of American exceptionalism.
For Trump, what makes America exceptional is its resistance to globalism.
As I’ve suggested earlier, “American exceptionalism” is not an enduring set of American values. It’s an enduring method of American contrast, a way of distinguishing the United States from Europe. The nature of that contrast has changed radically over time. Until World War II, many Americans thought that what distinguished the two continents was Europe’s proclivity for war, which the peace-loving, commercial-minded United States, should avoid. After the Russian revolution, Americans often said that what made their country exceptional was its lack a strong socialist or communist movement.
Barack Obama often suggested what made America exceptional was its capacity for inclusion. After recounting his Kansan-Kenyan ancestry, he frequently claimed that, “In no other country is my story even possible.” In 2015, he told British Prime Minister David Cameron that “Our Muslim populations, they feel themselves to be Americans. There is, you know, this incredible process of immigration and assimilation that is part of our tradition that is probably our greatest strength. There are parts of Europe in which that’s not the case, and that’s probably the greatest danger that Europe faces.”
Trump has turned that on its head. Like previous presidents, he defines America in contrast to Europe. But for Trump, what makes America exceptional is not its peacefulness or inclusiveness or resistance to socialism. It is its resistance to globalism. America is the opposite of the European Union. It is the place where borders and national identity remains king. During the Cold War, hawks often said that what distinguished America from Europe was America’s willingness to resist the Kremlin. For Trump, what distinguishes America from Europe is America’s willingness to resist Davos and Turtle Bay.
For Trump and his supporters, globalism kills jobs and it kills people. And it does the latter, in large measure, by allowing Muslims into the West. Keeping America exceptional, therefore, means ensuring that Muslims never gain the same foothold in the U.S. than they’ve gained on the other side of the Atlantic. This idea has obsessed Steve Bannon for years. He’s explained that one of the reasons he opened a Breitbart office in London was to show Americans that “all these Shariah courts were starting under British law.” In December 2015, he warned that if America doesn’t “hit the pause button today … we’re going to be importing at least a couple of million Muslims” per year. In a Fox interview this February about Trump’s travel ban, senior White House aide Stephen Miller brought up Europe unprompted. “The most important thing to discuss right now,” he said, “is how do we keep this country from falling into the same trap as happened to parts of Europe to places like Germany, to places like France, where you have a permanent intergenerational problem of Islamic radicalism that becomes a routine feature of life in those countries, a new normal. How do we keep that from happening in America?”
That’s what makes Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, such a useful foil. He personifies Muslims’ growing prominence in European life. He undermines Obama’s argument: that what distinguishes America from Europe is its ability to integrate Muslims. But he perfectly illustrates Trump’s: that what distinguishes America from Europe is that America’s Muslim population remains numerically small and politically weak.
This helps explain why Trump and his aides and family have been attacking Khan for more than a year now. And it helps explain their insistence that Khan is soft on jihadist terror. It fits their exceptionalist narrative: That virtually all Western Muslims, even the ones who appear to be culturally integrated and politically moderate, secretly abet the terrorist threat.
When Breitbart calls Huma Abedin and Khizr Khan stealth Islamists, it’s peddling the same message. And it’s issuing a warning to any aspiring Muslim politician who harbors dreams of becoming America’s Sadiq Khan: Trump’s allies will relentlessly tar you as an agent of ISIS. The apparent goal is to keep American Muslims too isolated and fearful to use the democratic process to secure their rights. Which, as it happens, is what ISIS wants, too.
* Another example of Trumpian Staff Incompetence:
1600 Daily: Everything White House for 6/19/17
JUNE 16, 2017 AT 12:45 PM ET BY 1600DAILY (emphasis added)
Summary: Get news, events and updates from the White House here at 1600 Daily.
Today, President Donald J. Trump will host a working session with technology leaders in the private sector to develop creative solutions that will streamline government services. Modernizing government is an enormous undertaking and requires the best minds working in concert toward providing services that are effective and cost-efficient.
Note this minor but suitably glaring example of White House staff incompetence in the timestamp for todays schedule. The minions did get today’s top line date right, but the posting date and time are for last Friday’s effort, as the accompanying screen shot from Friday demonstrates.
The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
What is so remarkable as these boobs continue to stumble is that this is the very public face of the White House deliberately intended for outside and media scrutiny. It’s not like they intend to labor quietly in the shadows.
This crew makes a shameful appearance on behalf of American quality. And Trump.45 thinks they are the “Best and Brightest”. Maybe in the Minor League’s Class D Appalachian League (pre-1963 reorganization), but not in The Bigs, they aren’t. Now everybody in professional baseball is called a Class A or better player, except for the Rookie League. Not really, as embodied by Trump.45’s staff performance.
From the Wikipedia entry for Minor League Baseball (partial):
Reorganization of 1963
The current minor league structure is largely based on a significant reorganization that occurred before the 1963 season, which was caused by the club and league contraction of the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1949, the peak of the post-World War II minor league baseball boom, 438 teams in 59 leagues were members of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. By the end of 1963, only 15 leagues survived in the United States and Canada.
Previous structure (1946–1962)
Before 1946, the minors’ highest level was labeled Double-A. In 1946, the Triple-A classification was created and the three Double-A circuits (the Pacific Coast and International leagues, and the American Association) were automatically reclassified Triple-A. The Class A1 level, two rungs below the Majors and comprising the Texas League and the Southern Association, was then renamed Double-A.
Prior to 1963, the Class A level was a higher-rung classification. In 1946, Class A consisted of the Eastern League and the original South Atlantic or “Sally” League, and it would soon include the Western League (1947–1958), the Central League (1948–1951), and the Western International League (1952–1954). The WIL became the Class B Northwest League in 1955, and the Western and Central loops folded. But postwar Class A cities included communities such as Denver, in Major League Baseball since 1993, as well as Vancouver, Omaha, Colorado Springs, Scranton and Allentown, which would establish themselves as Triple-A venues.
The lower levels of the minors were ranked Classes B through D in descending order. With the exception of the 1952–1957 Open Classification experiment for the Pacific Coast League, this structure would remain intact through 1962. (see Defunct levels, below)
The 1963 classification realignment
After the 1962 season, the Triple-A American Association disbanded and the surviving International and Pacific Coast leagues absorbed the four remaining American Association franchises. Meanwhile, at the Double-A level and below there were even more significant changes:
The two existing Class A leagues—the Eastern and South Atlantic—were upgraded to Double-A, joining the Texas League and the Mexican League, then Double-A, as members of this classification. This move was caused by the disbanding of the Southern Association after 1961, leaving the six-team Texas League as the only U.S.-based Double-A circuit in 1962. (The Mexican League, although a formal member of minor league baseball, was not affiliated with any Major League teams.) In addition, many Major League parent teams had frequently treated the pre-1963 Eastern and South Atlantic leagues as de facto Double-A circuits, one step (rather than two) below Triple-A.
The Class B Carolina League and Northwest League, the Class C California League, Pioneer League and Northern League, and the Class D Florida State League, Georgia–Florida League, Midwest League, New York–Penn League, and Western Carolinas League were all designated Class A (or Single-A) leagues. (The unaffiliated Mexican Central League of 1960–1978, ranked Class C in 1962, also was upgraded to Class A.)
The Class D Appalachian League, then the only “short-season” circuit, was given a new designation as a “Rookie” league.
As part of the 1963 reorganization, Major League clubs increased their commitments to affiliate with minor league teams through Player Development Contracts, outright ownerships, or shared affiliations and co-op arrangements.
Appalachian League Professional Baseball Logo (1914-1962 Class D)
Don’t get me wrong. Class D in the day was still professional baseball, accessible to America’s heartland audience. It’s just the level of competition that is at issue. And the Appalachian League provided some memorable performances.
Pirates Minor League Pitcher Ron Necciai (1952) Only Perfect 27 Strikeout Game Ever Thrown in Professional Baseball
Here’s one example any baseball fan would give his or her eye-teeth to have witnessed. In 1952, 19-year old pitcher Ron Necciai of the Pirates organization threw 51 strikeouts in two consecutive 9-inning baseball starts (54 total outs). A 94% strikeout percentage over this two game span. A stunning feat never equaled, never duplicated. Not by Dizzy Dean, or Feller, or Gibson, or Koufax, or Ryan, or Clemens. Nobody, not ever before or since in the records.
Then Necciai hit the Majors.
The 19-year-old minor leaguer recorded every out via strikeout in his 1952 no-hitter. It’s believed to be the only nine-inning, 27-strikeout performance in professional baseball history. Necciai, playing for the Pirates’ Class-D Appalachian League affiliate, followed it up with a 24-strikeout two-hitter in his next start. But he lasted less than two months in the majors, going 1-6 with a 7.08 ERA.
There is so much complexity and grey built into daily life, especially regarding political and religious matters. It gets very tiresome to be constantly bombarded with Trump.45’s simplistic notions and cartoonish reductionism about issues of grave and overriding importance for all of us. A siege of Trump Fatigue which ought to be formally recognized in the next revised DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
Here’s a New York Times perspective article from today on the latest London Terror Incident and related items:
LONDON — Like many of London’s Muslims, Mohammed Abdullah grew tired of defending himself, and his religion, after Islamist terrorists carried out two attacks in the city and another in Manchester during the past three months. Hostile glances followed him on the street, and rising fury greeted him on social media.
Then came last week’s devastating fire at Grenfell Tower, a citywide tragedy that killed at least 79 people inside the 24-story tower, including many Muslims. “Good riddance,” one far-right forum commented.
But early Monday, a white British man rammed a rental van into a congregation of Muslims leaving prayers during Ramadan, the holiest month on the Muslim calendar. One person was killed and at least 10 were injured.
“It feels like you’re under siege,” said Mr. Abdullah, 23, a law student standing outside Finsbury Park Mosque in North London on Monday morning hours after the attack. “I wonder,” he said, “is anyone going to write about a ‘white Christian terrorist’ this time round?”
London may be the most diverse and tolerant city in the world and is home to more than one million Muslims from dozens of countries. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is Muslim, and he enjoys broad support outside the Muslim community, too. When Britain voted to leave the European Union, London voted to stay.
But this proudly cosmopolitan city is now confronted with the tensions and ugliness that have been simmering on the fringes for years and are boiling to the surface.
As Hamdan Omar, another student who grew up in the area, put it, “There are people on both sides who want the clash of civilizations.”
The man under investigation for the mosque attack was identified by the police as Darren Osborne, 47, of Cardiff, Wales. Prime Minister Theresa May, who has been criticized for her response to the Grenfell fire, denounced the assault as an act of “evil” and “hatred” and promised to bolster security at mosques.
The authorities said they were treating the attack as an act of terrorism against Muslims, while many of the city’s Muslim leaders pleaded for calm and warned against a rising tide of anti-Islamic sentiment.
“Over the past weeks and months, Muslims have endured many incidents of Islamophobia, and this is the most violent manifestation to date,” said Harun Khan, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
In the week after the June 3 terrorist attack on London Bridge and at Borough Market that killed eight people and was carried out by three men inspired by the Islamic State, the Metropolitan Police reported 120 Islamophobic events, compared with 36 the previous week. Similar increases were recorded after the terrorist attacks in March on Westminster Bridge in London, and in May at the Manchester Arena.
On Monday in Finsbury Park, one of London’s many diverse neighborhoods, residents left flowers and messages of solidarity outside the mosque.
“With love, sympathy and support to our Muslim neighbors, victims of this horrific act of terrorism,” read one handwritten note. “This does not represent Finsbury Park,” read another.
The children of a local school had drawn a colorful, even cheerful, sign: “One Community. Standing Together.”
By late morning, the initial fear and shock over the attack had given way to anger — anger at the government and at the news media for too often amalgamating Islam and Islamists. But by the afternoon, another sentiment made itself heard powerfully here: defiance.
“Things like this will only strengthen London,” said Mr. Abdullah, the law student. His grandfather and father had both been praying at the mosque before the attack and were inside when it happened. “An event like this will be met with resilience.”
Uba Osman, 20, a local business manager, concurred: “There are some people who are trying to divide us,” she said. “But they won’t divide us. Londoners are not like that.”
There was a sense of relief here, carefully expressed, that the man suspected in the attack was not from the city. “Somehow, it would have been even worse if he had been from our city,” said Zahra Mounia, 45, a mother of two who lives in South London but traveled here to see a friend after the attack. “We are so proud of this city and what it stands for.”
An attack at a London mosque is being investigated as terrorism. Britain has seen several such assaults recently.
March 22: Westminster BridgeA 52-year-old Briton drove into pedestrians, killing five people. He then fatally stabbed a police officer before being shot and killed near Parliament.
May 22: Manchester ArenaA 22-year-old resident of Manchester, England, killed 22 people, many of them children, and injured dozens in a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande show.
June 3: London BridgeThree men in their twenties and early thirties rammed pedestrians with a van, then rampaged a popular nightspot with knives. Eight people died, and dozens more were wounded. The police killed the assailants.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for all three attacks. The group considers anyone whose actions were inspired by it to essentially be a member.
But some worried London’s tolerance was fraying on the edges, too. Over the past three months, as Islamist militants struck three times, several residents said they experienced small but unsettling episodes of hostility.
“In London, people feel they must tolerate you, so they won’t say anything but you get the dirty looks, people avoiding eye contact,” said Suzanne Stone, 42, a convert to Islam and a writer of children’s books. “My friend outside of London gets real abuse.”
Her husband, Omar Faruq, said he worried about some of the things in the news media. “They say things on the radio and are not held to account,” he said, recalling one show in which a member of the far-right anti-Muslim English Defense League “was calling on people to form militias.”
Mr. Faruq was also concerned that the government might further stigmatize Muslims by expanding the country’s already powerful antiterrorism legislation. “Now there is a lot of talk about nonviolent extremism,” he said. “What does that mean? If you don’t believe in a certain way, you are extremist? Everything is extremism now.”
He pointed out the way the news media had been quick to identify Finsbury Park Mosque as a former hotbed of radicalization. He wondered if that was appropriate: “It just takes away that little bit of sympathy,” he said.
Details matter. That is something many people here said on Monday. It was Muslims, awake because of Ramadan, who saved a lot of lives in Grenfell Tower by waking up neighbors and alerting the fire department. And it was an imam of the Muslim Welfare House who helped form a protective ring around the van driver on Monday before the police arrested him. “How many people know that?” asked Omar Hussain, a community worker.
Language matters, too. When The Daily Mail initially described the assailant outside the mosque as a “white van driver” rather than a terrorist, Muslims were not alone in their indignation. J. K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” books, criticized The Mail, an influential right-wing tabloid, for the way it referred to him. “The Mail has misspelled ‘terrorist’ as ‘white van driver,’” she wrote, but later deleted, on Twitter. “Now let’s discuss how he was radicalised.”
One answer, said Jacob Davey of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who analyzes extremist online narratives, is that Islamist militants and far-right extremists have fed on one another’s hatred to recruit people for their causes.
After the Grenfell fire, the English Defense League posted an image of the tower on Facebook (later removed) with the caption: “They say Ramadan saved Lives. It would be the first time Islam saves lives.”
In another Facebook thread about Monday’s mosque attack, one comment read, “What do you expect?” Another, “Civil war has begun.”
Meanwhile, on Ummah News, a forum that supports the Islamic State, commenters reacted to the Monday attack by calling for Muslims to fight back: “Oh Muslims you need to wake up the war is starting now in your own streets outside your own Masajids. Your elders could be killed, your sisters could be attacked. They hate your Oh Muslims.”
Nazir Afzal, who was once the acting chief prosecutor for London and has lived in the city for 20 years, said it was a powerful message to people “on the cusp of radicalization.”
In Finsbury Park, some linked last year’s vote to leave the European Union to a change in atmosphere in the country that also left its mark on London, its opposition to the British exit notwithstanding.
“Since the ‘Brexit’ vote, things have been crazy,” said Mr. Abdullah, the law student. “The spotlight is on minorities. The signal is, ‘You’re not wanted here.’”
Brendan Cox, whose wife, Jo Cox, a member of Parliament, was shot and killed a week before the referendum by a right-wing extremist, urged the country to fight hateful ideology against Muslims, just as much as it was fighting Islamist militancy.
“When islamist terrorists attack we rightly seek out hate preachers who spur them on,” Mr. Cox wrote on Twitter. “We must do the same to those who peddle Islamophobia.”
Mendy Korer, the rabbi of Islington, one of many local faith leaders who had come to Finsbury to show solidarity, said he was confident the local community would beat hatred. “We have a duty to break that cycle,” he said.
Not everyone was so optimistic.
“I think it could escalate,” said Shiraz Kothia of the London Muslim Community Forum who helps the Metropolitan Police to manage community relations during major episodes like this. “We’ve got the right-wing extremists and we’ve got the Muslim extremists.”
“I’m really worried,” he added. “Today outside a Muslim mosque. Tomorrow outside a church?”