Last night, pop singer Ariana Grande finished a concert in Manchester, England, some 200 miles northwest of London. As the audience filled with teenagers began leaving the show, an explosion ripped into the crowd. At least twenty-two people were killed, and nearly sixty people were injured.
The blast went off around 10:35 PM in the foyer outside the main hall of the Manchester Arena, the largest indoor arena in Europe. Witnesses said the bomb appeared to have used nails; such shrapnel increases a bomb’s ability to wound its victims.
Police believe a man carrying explosives acted as a lone attacker and died in the blast. British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting this morning and called the episode an “appalling terrorist attack.” She just announced that police and security staff believe they know the identity of the apparent suicide bomber but are not revealing the name for the time being. Police just arrested a twenty-three-year-old man in connection with the attack.
As of this moment, we do not yet know who is responsible for this atrocity. Here’s what we do know.
One: We can expect such attacks to continue. As I am writing this morning, police have just evacuated a shopping center in Manchester, where witnesses heard a “big bang.” British police have said they are making an arrest every day on average in connected with suspected terrorism.
Radicalized Muslims believe that the West has been attacking Islam for centuries. Since Britain and other Western countries are democracies where we elect our leaders and support our military, they consider us complicit in this perceived attack on their religion.
Continue reading Denison Forum – Terrorist attack in England: 3 facts
