Writer J. K. Rowling has called to end 'victim blaming', in the wake of the horrific attack on worshippers at Finsbury Park Mosque in London.
A van deliberately ploughed into a crowd of people leaving late night prayers at the Mosque in the early hours of Monday morning – leaving one and ten injured – and a 48-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of terrorism.
The Harry Potter author has pointed out on social media the stark differences between how the terrorist incident had been reported in the press in comparison to the reporting of the terrorist attacks in London Bridge and Ariana Grande’s concert in Manchester. In particular, she takes aim at The Mail’s choice of headline: referring to the attacker as a ‘white van driver,’ rather than 'terrorist,’ when news first broke of the incident.
‘The Mail has misspelled 'terrorist' as 'white van driver.' Now let's discuss how he was radicalised,’ Rowling commented on Twitter.
Sharing with her 10 million Twitter followers she wrote: ‘Victim blaming in the usual newspapers is disgusting. #FinsburyPark mosque won an award for combating extremism.’
Rowling goes on to praise Imam Mohammed Mahmoud, who protected the Finsbury Park attacker from the crowd until police arrived: ‘The extraordinary decency and courage of this act has brought me to tears this morning. I hope this imam gets the recognition he deserves.’
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