London mayor Sadiq Khan told reporters that diversity is one of the British capital’s strengths in the wake of the London Bridge attack, and that all great cities are targets for terrorists.
“Look, I’m mayor of the greatest city in the world, and one of our strengths is our diversity,” he told reporters shortly the attack by Usman Khan, a convicted radical Islamic terrorist who had been freed from prison on a tag after serving less than half of a 16-year term, which left two dead and three injured.
“But we do know there are people out there who hate out diversity, hate what we stand for, and are trying to seek to divide us”, he added — although his grounds for appearing to suggest that terrorists despise Britain for being diverse were unclear.
Mayor Khan then flirted with controversy with a statement echoing an earlier, infamous former claim of his with respect to terror attacks — i.e. that “part and parcel of living in a great global city is you’ve got to be prepared for these things” — by telling reporters: “Look, I know, speaking to colleagues around the world, mayors of other great cities, that we’re all targets for terrorists.”
Some critics of the Mayor of London have suggested that such attacks only appear to be a feature of life in cities such as London, while in a relatively homogenous place like the Japanese capital of Tokyo they are exceedingly rare — although not entirely unknown.
Mayor Khan went on to say that London would have suffered even more deadly terror attacks like the one perpetrated by Usman Khan if not for the efforts of the authorities, confirming that “since the four terror incidents in 2017, because of the excellent work that police and the security services and because of the intelligence provided by members of the public, we’ve thwarted more than twenty attempts at terrorism on innocent citizens”.
“[W]hat’s really important is we all remain vigilant,” he warned, adding that “If anyone sees anything suspicious please report it to the police. Err on the side of caution, I’d rather people overreport to the police and the experts than under-report,” he said.
The Labour politician also praised the heroism of the have-a-go heroes who tackled Usman Khan armed with nothing but their bare hands, a fire extinguisher, and a narwhal tusk, as well as the emergency services, saying that “What was amazing about today, was we saw in one individual, the suspect, the worst of humanity, but we also saw in the response from members of the public but also our emergency services the very vest of humanity.”
“[T]he message I want to send… is we are resolute, we stand united in the face of terrorism, and we will not allow anybody to divide us,” he insisted.
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