In a vicious and senseless attack, two British men of Nigerian descent hacked a British soldier to death on a London street. Before being shot and injured by police, one of the assailants said the murder was committed in revenge for wars in Muslim countries, and that the attackers had decided to take the war back to the invading nations. The London murderers apparently justified their butchery as resentment over Western troops fighting in Muslim countries. They perceive those soldiers, whatever role they have been given by their governments or even if under international law, as the enemies of Islam. The murderers are convinced that something must be done, and they are willing to kill or be killed in support of their ideology. It is disheartening for Muslims to see their religion being associated with such atrocities. For Muslims in the UK, the attack brought back memories of several Islamist-related terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham. Most people who organize protests against soldiers who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, while they feel a sense of injustice, express their opposition peacefully. However, there are some who think that indiscriminate violence can create justice. And it nearly impossible for security services to determine who is merely an angry protester and who is a terrorist. Security measures are automatically increased but the method of the Woolwich killing, without warning in broad daylight with knives and a cleaver, strongly suggests that precious little can stop such an attack no matter what precautions have been taken. There is little that a free society can do to minimize the individual risk from such attacks, if it wants to remain free. That is what terrorism is all about: To make those who live their lives in general safety and comfort, and who are oblivious — at least in the opinion of the assailant — to the suffering of others a world away, experience the brutality and blood of the battlefield on a normal street, in a normal neighborhood. That the Woolwich assailants were known to security services did not help. They were on the radar screen but the blips were deemed too innocuous for the authorities to take action. There are thousands of people on the radar, but it is unrealistic that each one is followed day and night. What makes the job harder is that plotters are increasingly working alone, without the supervision of a group like Al-Qaeda which has weakened over the years. Some will rush to blame Muslims or Islam for what happened in London, and a backlash has already started. The 43-year-old man who was arrested in the east of London after reportedly walking into a mosque with a knife shortly after news broke of the London murder, and another man in custody on suspicion of racially aggravated criminal damage, are some of the expected ramifications of the assault on the soldier. But it is important to understand the difference. Islam is not the enemy. Muslims are not the enemy. The enemy is the radical ideology that justifies any atrocity committed for political motives.
