Isis wants you to hate Muslims

Defence secretary Michael Fallon told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the “working assumption” is that the attack at Westminster and the Houses of Parliament was “Islamic terrorism in some form”.

We now know that the assailant drove a car into a crowd of people on Westminster bridge, and then stabbed and killed a police officer.

He was later shot by police, and died.

Sir Michael insists that the security services are working hard to find out more details about the attack.

They have been working right through the night, looking into his background, how he got hold of the vehicle, where the vehicle has been in the last day or two, and who may, or may not, have helped him.

Despite the lack of initial details regarding the attack, some people have assumed that it was perpetrated by, or connected to a so-called Islamic State.

According to New York Times Correspondent and Isis specialist Rukmini Callimachi, who is monitoring Isis channels, as of yet Isis has not claimed responsibility.

Former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson descended on the Houses of Parliament and went on a tirade about Muslims.

After a journalist said he had been quick to label it a foreign attack, he said:

This is the reality. The reality is these people are waging war on us. This has been going on for 1,400 years and while it's going on the police leaders and the political leaders want to invite more.

At the time of the publishing of this article, the identity of the attacker has not been released; and the security services have not as yet determined his motives.

However, people have continued to blame it on a foreign Islamist attack.

Donald Trump’s son shared a tweet which incorrectly stated that the suspect was named as “hate preacher Abu Izzadeen” – despite the fact that the man is in prison.

Which is why it must be noted:

After the Paris attacks in 2015 The Independent wrote a piece entitled ‘Hating Muslims plays right into Isis’s hands’.

Arie Kruglanski, a professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, who studies how people become terrorists said:

This is precisely what Isis was aiming for — to provoke communities to commit actions against Muslims…

Then ISIS will be able to say, ‘I told you so. These are your enemies, and the enemies of Islam.’

While being interviewed by French newspaper Le Monde, Gilles Kepel echoed these sentiments - he argued that Isis wants a civil war, and they think they‘ll get it through a “proliferation of blind attacks that will provoke lynching’s of Muslims".

These attacks will create “hotspots of war” in Europe which the terror group can exploit, he reasoned.

More: How MPs reacted to the Westminster attack as it happened

More: This photo of a ‘missing’ woman in Westminster being shared is apparently a hoax