The London Lone Wolf Attack - A sole conjectural comment

A Conjecture on Lone Wolf Terror incident – The London Attack

The March London attack reminds us of the fact that no man can actually act alone without some little help from friends, family or inspiration. The London attacker, who will remain nameless, was a coward and acted on this principle of hurting or killing as many people as he could by using an SUV to run over people and then stabbing a policeman as he made his way into the Parliamentary yards.

His attack was a textbook assault described in the ISIS manual of war to inflict mass injuries or casualties by the means of raw weaponry e.g. car, knife and blunt force. He knew he could get away with it but also knew he would get caught as he chose one of the heaviest guarded places in London to carry out his hate-motivated terrorist act.

What is interesting about these lone wolf acts is the action behind the scenes that creates such drama and bizarre moments of thoughts to kill others in the name of religion or other political causes. It is interesting to follow the bouncing ball and see where this ideology comes from.

In London, a city now divided by both ethnical and religious means, the problem is just starting. This act was not perpetuated by a lunatic. He was sane and cautious enough not to be detected and deterred before he committed his heinous crime.

So where do they get their inspiration from? What spurs them to act the way they do? I suspect it has a lot to do with apathy and a radical approach to political disconcerted ideas that emboldens violence and hate crimes. Of course, that is merely my opinion but I am certain there are some undercurrents within society that stokes such emotions and thoughts.

The United Kingdom is somewhat unique in background motivational thinking. I believe the election of a Muslim as the mayor of UK’s largest city has a lot to do with the boldness and violent extremes that have been prevalent in the UK region. Call it a hunch but I believe it is more than that.

Examining this Muslim mayor and his latest rhetoric that terror attacks are “part and parcel “in all big or major cities is ludicrous. His assumption basically translates into a surrender or submission on terrorism and allowing it to be part of the culture of the community. Is the mayor downplaying terrorism in his own city?

For me this is a statement of ‘surrender’ or submission rather than resistance to the matter. It gives me the impression that the mayor’s tacit approval to commit violent acts is just another part of the growing pains of big cities. That is a false perception and shows lack of depth in the manner public safety is approached.

I suspect that he is comparing London with Baghdad or Istanbul or any other major Muslim city in the world. London is not such a city, it is not yet dominated by the Islamic faith and customs and practices.

Or is it? Have the Londoners lost their paradise and surrendered the city’s parcels of land, the communities and neighborhoods to the immigration flow of Muslim immigrants?  There is room for thought on this matter and sticking to the facts, we can see a political and cultural shift happening in what was once a proud and traditional European nation.

The mayor is absolutely a liberal and Muslim sympathetic as he himself would never turn away from the Islam religion. He doesn’t deny terrorism but claims it to be a part of living in the big city.

How false is that? Is this too ridiculous and why would you even have to ask?  Are we saying that Washington DC, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles as well as many more cities are to expect ‘terrorism’ to be part of living in the big city?  

Is he making excuses for Islamic terrorism created and carried out by radical extremist out of control and out to kill innocents in the name of their prophet Muhammad and Allah, their god? Are massacres acceptable to elected officials in the western world today?

So here is my problem. Some may say there are no lone-wolfs out there and base that on the fact that they thrive as criminals within a selected environment. An environment that is nurtured by hate and religious extremism that causes people to think differently than their neighbors or in general Muslims versus Christians as Muslims are dominantly members of the Islam faith.

Offering London as a ‘sanctuary city has offered an environment for radicalism and extreme thinking. Making London or any other city, whether in the UK, France, Belgium, Canada or the United States as a sanctuary for Muslims who preach radicalism is dangerous. Lone wolf perpetrators are products of their environment.

Can you see where I am going with the Lone Wolf theory? Do they really act alone like we think they do or are they supported by a social structure that creates them or organizes their thoughts to help carry out violent attacks?

If you or surround yourself with violence, you, yourself will eventually become violent. Mix that up with a mindset, an ideology you believe in and you are the poisoned apple looking to kill the innocent apples as they disagree with your own behaviors and thinking patterns.

This environment is not limited to where they live. It is also a reflection of where they work, where they eat and where they hang out socially. This broad spectrum of social and theological influences is limitless. It’s an infinity to deal with physically and psychologically. If you live amongst the jihadist, you will eventually become a jihadist unless you have the ability to move away from it and it doesn’t follow you. Family members are likely to be the greatest influences after the principles of the Quran and Imams in the community.

Another perspective is the fact that violence is prevalent inside prisons and there, the person committing the violence may differ a little as it is a world between prey and predator. However, they too share the uniformity of common or familiar languages or vocabularies, race, gangs or more intimate things like traditions, behaviors, codes or cultural expectations and thinking patterns.

Unfortunately, there are more predators than there are prey and that makes the case that in order to survive, you have to become a predator aka a perpetrator or a criminal of sorts. In order to survive you choose your clearly marked commonalities and stick with the numbers it gives you for your own personal safety. That is instinctively how the human reacts to dangers. Thus I agree, a lone wolf may indeed act alone but is created or morphed into a creature influenced by his or her environment.

Timing is irrelevant but it does exist as a factor. Over time, whether it be the past or present, it can cause a trigger to spur actions. The reason for that comment is that terrorism is not new and is perpetual to time. Time and space control the events that shape today and tomorrow. On the other hand, time and space of the past has often influenced the future.

Terrorism is spreading because of the environment it feeds from. Hatred is too common to find and when found, causes a rejection and often an act of rebellion or violence. This trigger, this stimulus is what sets the lone wolf off and drives him or her into a frenzy of hate and vehemence.