Picture Shows: 50 of the 52 people murdered by jihadist terrorists in London on 7th July 2005.
It is now 21 years since the 7th July Islamist terror attack on London’s transport infrastructure and those using it. 52 people were murdered by these Islamist savages and a great many more were injured to various degrees. The 7/7 attacks were not the last attacks on Britain by Islam inspired terrorists and there has been many more since then it is likely that there will be many more to come.
It’s both right and proper that we take this opportunity to remember those who were murdered and injured in these savage attacks 21 years ago. May the memories of those who died be for a blessing and may those injured find full healing if they can.
However we must also remember the political failures that led up to the attacks including how the British state failed to take seriously the threat posed by Islamism, despite copious warnings from knowledgeable people and the example of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. We should also remember the political and security response to 7/7 which as we have seen has often been less than robust. The aftermath of 7/7 should have seen a loud political condemnation of extremist Islam but it didn’t come. The aftermath should have seen robust action taken against extremists in Britain’s Islamic communities, but it did not happen. The result of these political and security failures is that the threat from Islamic terrorism in Britain is even worse than it was in the period before the 7/7 attacks. We still have a situation where the security services are monitoring 40,000+ extremists the bulk of them of an Islamic persuasion. We are still in danger and still under threat. There’s plenty of opportunity for the security services to miss something about the huge number of Islam inspired extremists and let an attacker slip through. As an IRA spokesman once said of the conflict between this terror organisation and the British state ‘the British forces have to be right every time where as we only have to be right once.’ There are now so many Islam inspired terrorists in Britain that it is I believe only a matter of time before one is missed by the security services and who then goes on to commit yet another atrocity.
Those who died and were injured in the 7/7 attacks were let down by a political and security class that could not or would not see that an attack like this was likely. The rest of us have been let down by the State failing to learn the correct lessons from 7/7 and deal with the issue of religious extremism at its source and deal with it robustly and to the satisfaction of the British people.
I was lucky enough to only be caught up in the periphery of this attack but it changed me. As myself and my work colleagues at the time were being evacuated from Westminster by river boat I thought to myself that things would have to be different now, that the muzzle would be taken off of the State attack dog and the issue of religious and political extremism be treated as the clear threat that it was. Unfortunately this did not happen and instead the State’s attack dogs have been set upon those who point out problems with religious and political extremism and not on the sources of religious and political extremism.
Never forget those who were murdered on 7/7. Never forget those who were injured on 7/7. Never forget the lives shattered never to be rebuilt in the families of those who were killed or injured in the 7/7 attacks. Its right and proper that we do that but we must also not forget the political and security failures that created the conditions for 7/7 to happen and which are still present and still posing a major threat today.