Maybe If Everyone Murdered Everyone We Wouldn't Need Politics

In your latest "I'm ready to resign from humanity" news, in London, a man drove a van into a group of people in a terrorist attack Sunday. The driver plowed into a group of worshipers just after midnight Ramadan prayers at a mosque; witnesses said the driver jumped out of the van and, after being tackled by bystanders, said he "wanted to kill more Muslims."

In Virginia over the weekend, a 17-year-old Muslim girl was killed, apparently by baseball bat, but police aren't sure the attack was because of her religion; the kids who were with her when she was abducted seem to think the man in custody might have been your garden variety abductor and murderer.

The London attack occurred near two mosques, the Finsbury Park Mosque and the Muslim Welfare House. At least ten people were injured and one elderly man died, although it's unclear whether he was killed by the van; he had collapsed just before the attack began, according to Abdulrahman Aidroos, who was among several people trying to help the man. While they were assisting the man, the van drove "straight into us," he said:

The driver of the van jumped out of the vehicle and tried to run, Aidroos said.

“I tackled him on the floor until the police came,” he told the BBC. “When he was running, he said ‘I want to kill more people, I want to kill more Muslims,’” he said.

“When I got him on the ground, I said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ He said, ‘I want to kill more Muslims.’”

The witnesses held the attacker until police arrived and arrested him; he hasn't been identified yet, we'll assume because British police didn't give his name to any American diplomatic or intelligence agencies. Police said it was "too early to tell" whether the man who died was injured by the crash. At the very least, a vehicular attack on the people assisting him probably didn't help their first aid efforts.

Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the attack, saying that it and other recent terrorist attacks by ISIS-inspired extremists in London and Manchester were a threat to basic rights of religion and speech in the UK:

“This morning we have seen a sickening attempt to destroy those freedoms, and to break those bonds of citizenship that define our United Kingdom,” she said.

“It is a reminder that terrorism, extremism and hatred take many forms, and our determination to tackle them must be the same whoever is responsible.”

May also promised to increase security for mosques as the month of Ramadan comes to a close. London's Metropolitan Police commissioner, Cressida Dick, also pledged her department would provide additional protection for Muslim communities:

Speaking at the scene she said: “This was quite clearly an attack on Muslims who looked like they were probably Muslims and they were coming from a prayer meeting.

“We treat this as a terrorist attack. We in the Met are as shocked as anybody in this local community or across the country. We take all kinds of hate crime or violent extremism incredibly serious and wherever we possibly can, prevent attacks. And if we cannot prevent an attack then we will seek obviously to bring people to justice.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who came surprisingly close to defeating May in elections earlier this month, said the area's religious diversity makes it a "microcosm of a community working together" and appealed to all Londoners to reject hatred:

“An attack on a mosque, an attack on a synagogue, an attack on a church, is actually an attack on all of us. We have to protect each other’s faith, each other’s way of life. That’s what makes us a strong society and community.”

As of yet, Donald Trump has managed not to tweet anything incredibly stupid about the London attack; at least his daughter Ivanka offered her sympathies:

Commenters on the story at Dead Breitbart's Home for Eternal Hatred explained the London attack was obviously a false flag attack mounted by a paid employee of George Soros; others said it was about time and a good start. Also, the site offered this thoughtful example of journalistic balance:

So, you know, Both Sides Do It, and we need endless war forever.

Yr Wonkette can't stop thinking of this photo of eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was killed in the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Martin's parents wanted his killer to get life without parole, not the death penalty, which suggests they were raising Martin to be a terrific person. As does this: At his school, he'd made a sign to remember the kids killed in Sandy Hook.

We're naive enough to hope maybe an eight-year-old killed in a terrorist attack had the right idea all along: No More hurting People. Peace.

[ WaPo / Guardian / Guardian ]