I was truly shocked this week by the awful events in Woolwich. To run down a British soldier on a London street and then kill him in such a violent way is a completely monstrous act.
The perpetrators will cite religion and British foreign policy as their justification. True they see British forces as occupiers rather than liberators and true they follow the Quran, but the truth is neither is any more than a cowardly attempt to justify such animalistic behaviour.
Indeed, the first man to lay flowers at the scene was Ahmed Jama, a 26 year old local baker, a Muslim. As he came to pay his respects he said “this is nothing to do with Islam” and he is right. The actions of those men were down to their twisted political agenda and warped view of reality. Their great global crusade, the vengeance they felt they had served exists in their minds alone, incomprehensible to the world that looked on. Terrorists will always dress their actions in the language of whatever their glorified cause and perceived grievance, but they are nothing more than criminals.
History does not look kindly on criminals. On July 7th terrorists killed 52 innocent people on London’s public transport. What is left of the motives, the great sense of justice the 4 bombers felt they were serving? Nothing. Yet there are 52 families whose memories of the loved ones they lost still live on alongside the resolve of a nation that will always stand to defend the values and freedoms that terrorists seek to destroy.
Our thoughts are all with the soldier’s family and we shall not give a second thought to the political agenda of the perpetrators. History will hold this soldier as a hero, a man who died to show the world what freedoms we in Britain are prepared to die to defend. It will never be any other way and for this reason, terrorists will simply never win.
