Says London attacks affected everyone, including Muslims;
terrorists seek to divide communities; assures London
Muslims police are there to protect them; terror threat
and phenomenon have completely changed
LONDON: Scotland Yard’s chief Cressida Dick has said that the recent London attacks affected Muslims as much as anyone else and that terrorists don’t discriminate between Muslims and non-Muslims when they kill.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner told Geo News in an exclusive interview here that hate crimes against Muslims rose in London after the London Bridge and Borough Market attacks by Khurram Butt and his two accomplices.
Cressida Dick categorically stated that the targeting Londoners on the basis of their faith was unacceptable. She told Geo News: “Attack on London was an attack on all of us. Within Borough Market, there would have been many Muslims who were in the heat of the events. The terrorists discriminate as to who they may maim, kill and affect. I understand that Muslim communities are feeling shattered as many people are. There are concerns within the Muslim communities that they may find themselves target of hate crimes.
“What I will say to the Muslim communities is that we must all stand up in the face of terrorists. The London Metropolitan Police are here to work with Muslims, to protect them and to work with them to stop crimes. If you are a target, we will work hard to protect you. If you are suspicious of anybody and have anything and find yourself a victim of crime contact us and we will support you.”
Figures show a fivefold increase in Islamophobic attacks since the atrocity at London Bridge and a 40% increase in racist incidents, compared with the daily average this year. This average is greater than it was after the 2013 murder of Lee Rigby and after the 2015 massacre in Paris.
The Met Police chief said that hate attacks spike always after atrocities. She said attacks on London were truly awful. “They affected so many people. After such attacks in the UK, some terror events over 20 years, we have always seen increase in hate crimes. I am glad to say that a vast majority of those are verbal abuse, rather than physical abuse. Although there has been an increase but to put it in perspective it’s a small handful each day in our boroughs, may be 3 or 4 per day and in each borough currently and each borough is a size of a very large city.”
Cressida Dick said that the terrorists want to pitch communities against each other through their hate agenda. “The terrorists seek to divide us and we must not let them do that.
London is a fantastic, diverse, integrated city and that’s the way it needs to continue.”
When asked if its hijab-wearing, bearded Muslims or those from South Asia or Arab countries dress differently and could be more vulnerable to attacks, the Scotland Yard chief said: “Sadly, there are people who will look at how some people appear and abuse them, we have had that in the past and we have had that in this occasion but it’s a wide variety of crimes and its not just against the people of Muslim faith, people may assume that they are from the Muslim faith. There is a wide variety of crimes which appear to be motivated by hatred, religion or race.”
The Commissioner said that the nature of terror threat has completely changed and the police needs new approach and tactics to deal with the new terror challenges.
She told Geo News: “20 years ago in London, we still faced the threats of terrorism, 30 years ago we had, 50 and 40 years ago we had the same threat abut it was different sort of threat and a different phenomenon but we are very used to this in the UK. We have fantastic policemen fantastic intelligence agencies and some very great capability to keep people safe. In the coming weeks and months we will be doing everything to keep London safe, London remains a very safe city.”
Cressdia Dick said that chances of an average Londoners becoming victim of a hate crime are “very low” but “we will take them seriously and we will always seek to arrest people and bring them to justice if we possibly can”.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner denied that there was an intelligence failure leading up to last Saturday's London Bridge attack. She said: "Every bit of information is taken seriously."
