This has been the question on everybody’s lips today as the news revealed that the London bombers were young British men. There is disbelief and confusion. How could this be done by people that are part of our communities?

Questions hang:
What causes an 18 year old who has to do this?
What motivates a father of an 8 month year old child to do this?
There is something here that we are missing and not understanding.

I am disturbed by the hard, war mongering words, that we have heard from politicians so far. ‘The best form of defence is attack'(Bush), ‘we will look how to deport such people'(Blair), ‘we will make new laws’and so on. There has, correctly, been a lot of condemnation of the acts. There has, understandably, been condemnation of the four bombers.

I hope we can change. To now our reaction has been to hunt, to eliminate, to destroy. The shocking state of events, the fact that these were not overseas people, means we need to think again. Our seurity services and our politicians need to ask why and not just react.

I hope we can listen. I hope we can ask Muslim leaders for advice. I hope we can start to understand.