Pretty much everyone will remember the events on Monday 22nd May 2017 at the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert. A suicide bomber setting off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), killing himself and at least 22 innocent victims, many of whom were children, and that's not including the many injured.
These kind of attacks seem to be a theme over the last few years, mainly thanks to radicalised extremists from groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS. It's hard to get away from the fact that these groups claim to be Muslim and follow the teachings of the Quran. I'll openly admit, I don't know too much about Islam or the Quran, as an Atheist, I've never been interested in becoming a Muslim or joining any other religion. But from what I've been told by Muslims who I have worked with in the past, these people can never be considered true Muslim's despite their claims, explaining about how killing others and themselves is against what the Quran text says. I think I'm correct in saying that the same could be said about any other religion.
I spent the whole of yesterday pretty numb to what happened. These terrorist attacks are so regular, they are almost becoming a way of life, something that should be expected and not shocked or surprised about. This morning I genuinely felt angry with myself for feeling like that. But I'm not the only person I'm angry at, I'm angry at the attackers for committing these atrocities, I'm angry that they are using religion to justify what they are doing, and I'm angry at people who are getting drawn into those justifications and having a go at all Muslims because a small minority people are using their religion to justify attacking and killing innocent people.
Another admission that I want to make is that I hate organised religion, whether it be Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other religion, something which has led me to being an Atheist. But despite my hatred of religion I choose not to hate individuals who are religious, because many of them are genuinely nice people, or at least most of the ones I've met are. I'll also respect other people's beliefs as everyone has the right to choose to believe whatever they want to believe.
What I won't respect though, is people who believe an entire religion or group of people are to blame for the actions of a small group of people claiming to be members of that religion or group of people, because whatever these people claim, they do NOT belong to that religion or group of people! I've seen loads of people on Facebook yesterday having a go about Muslims as a whole, when true Muslims openly condemn the terrorist attacks done in their religion's name. On Monday night there were Muslims (among people with other religious beliefs) who helped the victims out, from by-standers to paramedics, and from taxi drivers offering free rides away from the scene to doctors and nurses at local hospitals. With this in mind I am angry at people who condemn everyone from one religion because of the acts of terrorists, who don't truly belong to any religion could come from any walk of life.
This has happened, but it's how we react that defines us as a people. The UK government has decided to upgrade the terror threat to it's highest level - CRITICAL. Critical basically means that a terror threat is imminent, and it's hard to argue with the government's reasoning behind putting the terror threat to this level, with all the terrorist attacks that have happened over the last few years, not only in the UK, but across the globe. It means that the Army will be helping the UK's police forces and more armed police will be visible on the streets until the terror threat level is downgraded again.
Even as an ordinary civilian be more vigilant, be aware when you're in public, don't panic if you seen the Army or armed police on the streets. If you see anything suspicious, that you think might be to do with a terrorist threat, then don't hesitate, please contact the police straight away on 0800 789 321.
RIP to all those who have lost their lives on Monday and every other terrorist attack, my sincere condolences to your families. Hope for a speedy recovery to all injured people.
