It was with horror that I watched details of the murder of an unarmed serviceman in Woolwich emerge.
In a previous life my job was to report on crime and I covered some pretty horrific things during that period. This is as bad as any one of those.
The callousness and brutality displayed in this murder was repulsive. The fact it is now being treated as a terrorist attack and the alleged motive behind the crime only add to this.
What is needed now is a measured response to a horrific crime. Two men have been shot by police officers and have been arrested as suspects from their hospital beds.
If found guilty, they should be punished in the strongest way possible. That goes for anyone who is involved in such grossly disgusting acts.
But almost as quickly as it emerged the duo were converted Muslims the dreaded knee-jerk reaction started. People desperate to judge others by their religion, not their actions.
I’m just back from First Minister’s Questions, where Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “These were not the actions of Britain’s Muslim community; it feels as wounded by the attack as anyone else.”
That’s undoubtedly true, but I for one am concerned about hate-filled attitudes spreading like wildfire. There’s already been some awful stuff on the internet and mosques have been set upon. Dangerous views can seep through into public consciousness if we’re not careful.
A great many Muslims live in the UK and Dundee has a relatively high proportion. As with any group of people, there are good and bad folk. The same is true of Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Sikhs, or any other faith base you can care to think of.
Bashir Chohan, chairman of the Dundee Islamic Society, has condemned the attack as “un-Islamic”. He said they had the religion “totally wrong” if they were using it as a reason to carry out the atrocity.
He also expressed concern at rising tensions between different ethnic and religious groups. This is could become an increasing worry if tensions continue to be stirred by thugs on the far right.
As the pictures of one suspect carrying a meat cleaver in his blood-soaked hands emerged, a colleague and friend of mine turned and said: “Places are going to burn because of this.”
He’s a man who is usually right. Let’s hope this time is an exception.