Thoughts on the Terrorist Attack at Westminster UPDATE

When I learned about this morning's terrorist attack outside the British Parliament which has thus far resulted in one death, I immediately thought about the October 2015 attack in Ottawa at the Canadian House of Commons.


I thought about this because both attacks began outside the respective parliaments. The Ottawa attack began with a shooting at the National War Memorial before the assailant made his way to Parliament Hill while today's attack involved a vehicle on the Westminster Bridge before he proceeded to the House of Westminster. In both cases, the assailants were shot and killed on parliamentary grounds. And, on a personal note, I worked as an intern in both the Canadian and British House of Commons and am familiar with the places were both attacks occurred.


As of this writing, it has yet to be established if the terrorist was a Muslim although given the target and the mode of attack it is not an unreasonable supposition. If this is the case there will be questions of whether the attacker was British born and affiliated with ISIS, al Qaeda or any other Islamic terrorist entity.


And if such is the case we will hear President Trump tout the virtues of his travel ban even if the perpetrator is not from any of the countries involved. We will also hear from those who say that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. That position is equally wrong. The fact is there a critical mass of Muslims who have organized around the world for the purpose of carrying out attacks on innocent civilians in an effort to force the West to submit to the establishment of an Islamic state governed by Sharia law. Of course, most Muslims don't engage in nor support such activity but not enough condemn it much less put a stop to it. Unless the Muslim world changes its outlook (possibly along the lines of a Reformation as advocated by the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali) this is the world in which we live. So long as things don't change we will have one side that denies that Muslims have anything to do with terrorism and another side which says all Muslims are terrorists. Why cannot there be a sensible middle ground.


In the meantime, Western civilization mourns yet again.


UPDATE: The death toll has now risen to four including the police officer who was stabbed. This marks yet another commonality with the Ottawa attack - the death of a man in uniform.
UPDATE II: Tobias Ellwood, a Conservative MP and government minister, performed CPR on the fallen officer who later succumbed to his injuries. Ellwood has a military background achieving the rank of captain in the Royal Green Jackets. This is not the first time Ellwood has been touched by terrorism. His brother was among the 202 people killed in the Bali bombing in October 2002. It is always heartening to know there are those among us prepared to spring into action when lives are at risk. We must take silver linings wherever they can be found.