It's business as usual in London, despite attacks

Terror groups fail to disrupt British capital, which has been a target for diverse causes for more than a century

The journey of hundreds of commuters into the center of London was brutally interrupted by a dull explosion and a flash of flame as a train stood at Parsons Green station on Sept 15.

That Friday evening, the trains were as busy as before and people went to the theater, restaurants and bars as if nothing had happened.

No one was seriously injured in perhaps the 215th terrorist attack on London since 1867, when Irish radicals detonated a bomb that killed 12 people. And few seemed to pay much attention.

London has long been the target of terrorists and also an arena where disputing parties have settled scores. The London Underground was first bombed in 1883. Of those 215 attacks - the figure is a rough count - 162 were carried out by Irish republicans and the rest by anarchists, Palestinian groups, right-wing extremists and Scottish nationalists. Only eight have been carried out by Islamists, all since 2005. Recent attacks are closely linked to a series of deadly attacks in Barcelona, Brussels, Berlin, Nice and Paris.

This year the attacks have felt closer to home. Westminster Bridge, where five people died March, is the turn-around point on a China Daily jogging route. London Bridge, where the attack that killed eight began, is less than 200 meters from the China Daily office. The District Line runs to its nearest station, Cannon Street.

The Irish Republican Army campaigns were rarely directed at civilians, although they claimed many civilian lives. The biggest hindrance for residents was the paralysis of the train system by deliberate attacks and false alarms, and the removal of litter bins that could be used to hide bombs.

Islamist attacks have been far fewer and less frequent than IRA attacks, but they seem more vicious and more indiscriminate. They use more primitive weapons - guns are highly controlled in the UK - but even kitchen knives can be lethal.

The IRA was at its zenith when it acted most strategically, in particular its bomb attacks on the City of London and Canary Wharf in 1995 and 1996, which killed three people but caused more than ￡1 billion ($1.35 billion; 1.13 billion euros) in damage.

The Islamists, with their focus on indiscriminate killing, are as ineffective as they are brutal. Their only discernible aim is to create animosity toward Muslims in the UK and create a cycle of discrimination and radicalization.

But London is so far unaffected by the attacks, except for new barriers blocking pedestrian areas. The city has a population of almost 9 million, and another 2 million commuters and tourists join that total every day. The effect of any attack is quickly dissipated, and the odds of being involved are very low.

But the frequency of attacks appears to be increasing and some must feel that it's a less safe place than before.

However, safety is relative. The day after the Parsons Green bombing, I saw a face I recognized in Ealing Broadway, itself the target of a bomb in 2001. It was Yusef, a journalist I worked with in Gaza City 10 years ago. He and his family had got out of Gaza five years ago to escape the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Yusef escaped before the 2014 Gaza War, which left 1,600 Palestinian civilians dead.

Despite its problems, London has provided a safe haven for Yusuf and his family and he's unlikely to go back to Gaza for fear of getting stuck there again.

The author is a senior editor at China Daily UK. Contact the writer at conal@mail.chinadailyuk.com.

(China Daily European Weekly 09/22/2017 page11)