I don’t remember where I was on 7/7. David Cameron today said that “everyone remembers exactly where they were when they heard the news”. I know where I was on 9/11 and how I found out about the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, but 7/7, I just don’t know. It was one of those “I remember where I was” days, but inexplicably, I don’t. I do know I was listening to BBC Radio Five Live and the stories were coming through that there had been “power outages” on the London Underground. I had no idea what a “power outage” was, but it sounded more of an inconvenience than anything else. If the power was out, the trains beneath London would stop moving. Bad news, but nothing too serious. Typical BBC, London-centric as ever.
It soon became clear that this was something very serious. A murderous assault by islamic fascists on innocent people. The carnage was terrible. 52 people were killed by suicide murderers, on the Underground and on a bus, but many more were horribly injured, their lives irrevocably changed by the barbaric actions of evil men. The suicide murderers believed they would blow themselves to smithereens and go to paradise. But their wild imaginings died in the explosions.
One of the killers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, even pre-recorded a statement to be released after his murder of innocent people, muslims among them: “I and thousands like me are forsaking everything for what we believe. Our drive and motivation doesn’t come from tangible commodities that this world has to offer. Our religion is Islam, obedience to the one true god and following the footsteps of the final prophet messenger. Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters. Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation.”
One of the other murderers, Shehzad Tanweer, argued that the non-muslims of Britain deserve such attacks because they voted for a government which “continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya”, forgetting to add that the muslims of Britain must have deserved it since he killed a few of them too. Perhaps it didn’t occur to him that destroying a tube train between Liverpool Street station and Aldgate tube station might hurt a few Muslims, or maybe he just didn’t care? I know which explanation I believe.
I can barely believe it all happened 10 years ago. How quickly time has passed since then, but not for everyone. The TV and radio stations have, rightly, been remembering the atrocity and those whose lives were ended or forever changed by it. On Radio Five Live, I heard a brilliant interview by Rachel Burden. She spoke with Greg Nicholson, whose 24 year old daughter was taken by Mohammad Sidique Khan at Edgware Road. Mr Nicholson struggled to find words and I struggled to control the tears. I happen to think there is no paradise for Khan, as there is no paradise or heaven for anyone else, but I sometimes wish there had been a hell for him to go to, once the million pieces of his blown up body had been put back together. As it is, his life ended that day. It is just such a shame he decided to take others with him.
Emma Craig was 14 at the time. She was on the Aldgate train blown apart by Tanweer. Of the many words that were spoken today, hers impressed and moved me more than most. We have heard the words of politicians the world over, decrying the terrorists, saying how their actions do not divide us, they unite us. They do not scare us, they will never break us. But Emma put it differently: ‘It didn’t break London, but it broke some of us,” she said.”Sometimes I feel people are so hell-bent on making a point about terrorism not breaking us, that they forget about the people caught up in it.” Perhaps that’s a little harsh on politicians because what’s the opposite of saying we will not be cowed by terrorists? That we will? Well, actually, yes we will be because less people will want to go to Tunisia, people will be more wary getting on a tube train, getting on an aeroplane. But for once, and I am not taking sides for or against anyone, we do stand together, recognising the horrors visited on people like Emma for whom I have the utmost respect and sympathy.
In fact, David Cameron judged his words very well today, as he usually does at a time of crisis: “Ten years on, this is one of those days when everyone remembers exactly where they were when they heard the news. It’s a day when we recall the incredible resolve and resolution of Londoners and the United Kingdom. A day when we remember the threat that we still face. But above all it’s a day when we think about the grace and the dignity of the victims’ families, for all they’ve been through, and we honour the memory of those victims and all those who were lost ten years ago today.”
He was undoubtedly sincere too, as was a visibly shaken Duke of Cambridge who was visiting the Hyde Park tribute to the dead. Cameron spoke for the nation and I thank him for that.
What will the terrorists visit upon us next? There seems to be no end or limit to their savagery, just the slaughter of the innocent as part of a wicked and evil ideology.
10 years ago, Britain reacted to crisis as it always does. With courage, with stoicism, with determination. The terrorists have ruined the lives of some and ended the lives of others, but they can’t beat all of us and that’s why David Cameron’s words about resolve and resolution are so right.
