United Against Terror: Commemorating the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack
On the eighth anniversary of the Westminster Bridge terror attack, which killed 5 and injured 48, Ben Smith explains why we will be holding a commemoration on the bridge. Join us to unite against terror, at 2pm on March 22nd.
On 22 March 2017, a 52-year-old British Islamist called Khalid Masood killed four members of the public and injured more than 50 others when he drove a hire car onto the pavement on Westminster Bridge. He then crashed the car, ran into the grounds of the Palace of Westminster and stabbed to death an unarmed police constable, PC Keith Palmer, before finally being shot dead by an armed police officer.
The murdered pedestrians were Aysha Frade, a teacher on her way to collect her children from school, Leslie Rhodes, a 75-year-old man from Clapham, Kurt Cochran, a tourist from the USA celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary with his wife, and Andreea Cristea, a Romanian tourist who fell into the Thames when the car struck and had her life support turned off two weeks after the attack.
In a final text message, Masood said that he was waging 'jihad' in revenge for Western military action in Muslim countries in the Middle East. Islamic State said the attacker answered the group's calls to target citizens of states it was fighting.
As with other terrorist atrocities in Britain in 2017 (the Manchester Arena bombing and the London Bridge attack), the authorities were keen to emphasise that the perpetrator was acting alone—that the attacks were essentially isolated incidents carried out by unhinged individuals. Our politicians push this narrative out of fear that talk of Islamist terrorism will provoke a backlash against Muslims.
But instead of treating the British public like volatile racists, it should be made clear that Islamism is not Islam; it is a modern political phenomenon with the stated aim of destroying western civilisation and ordinary Muslims are threatened by it as much as anyone else.
Those murdered eight years ago on 22 March must be remembered as victims in an existential war being fought by terrorist armies who are supported by terrorist states as well as by deranged individuals and ‘progressive’ political activists.
That's why we will be on Westminster Bridge, at 2pm on March 22nd, 2025, with Stop the Hate, to stand united against terror.
