The suspected assailant in the van-ramming attack near Finsbury Park mosque in London on the night of 18 June 2017 was a 47-year-old Cardiff man who had allegedly been thrown out of a pub over the weekend for “cursing Muslims”. According to an eye witness, Darren Osbourne shouted “I want to kill all Muslims – I did my bit” after he ploughed his rental van into a crowd of people on the pavement.

If accurately recounted, this last statement implies the attacker believed he was contributing to a broader cause, which not only proves that his brutal onslaught was clearly an act of terrorism but may offer clues to aspects of his radicalisation within the current climate.

… Cameron Sumpter is an Associate Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.