{"id":245652,"date":"2020-02-20T21:26:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T02:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=245652"},"modified":"2020-02-20T21:26:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T02:26:46","slug":"man-stabbed-at-london-mosque-police-say-not-terror-related","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/20\/man-stabbed-at-london-mosque-police-say-not-terror-related\/","title":{"rendered":"Man stabbed at London mosque; police say not terror related"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Witnesses said the muezzin \u2014 the person who calls Muslims to prayer \u2014 was attacked as prayers began at the London Central Mosque. (File photo by Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LONDON \u2014 A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after an official at one of London’s biggest mosques was stabbed during afternoon prayers on Thursday, police and mosque authorities said.<\/p>\n

The city’s Metropolitan Police force said detectives investigating the stabbing do not think it was terror-related. Police did not speculate on a possible motive.<\/p>\n

Witnesses said the muezzin \u2014 the person who calls Muslims to prayer \u2014 was attacked as prayers began at the London Central Mosque.<\/p>\n

The police force said officers called to the mosque found a man in his 70s with stab wounds. Paramedics treated the man and took him a hospital, where his injuries were judged as not life-threatening.<\/p>\n

Police said another man was arrested at the mosque, located near Regent’s Park, on suspicion of attempted murder. They said the suspect is a 29-year-old who is believed to have been attending prayers at the mosque.<\/p>\n

The mosque confirmed in a statement that the wounded man was the mosque’s muezzin. It said the suspect was restrained by worshippers until police arrived.<\/p>\n

Mosque-goers posted images on Twitter of police holding a man in a red-hooded top down on the floor after the stabbing. The images showed a small knife under a chair.<\/p>\n

One witness, Abi Watik said the arrested man had attended the mosque for several months. He said the suspect stabbed the victim in the shoulder just as afternoon prayers began.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was praying behind him and then he stabbed him,\u201d Watik said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were shocked. We didn’t know what happened. We saw the guy on the floor and blood on his shoulder and the knife on the floor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ayaz Ahmad, an adviser to the mosque, said the suspect was \u201cnot a regular,\u201d but had been noticed around the mosque before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a central mosque, people come to pray if they’re on holiday. You get a lot of new faces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a society where we hear a lot about knife crime and what have you, but actually to physically be in a situation where you’re firsthand watching an attempted murder take place, it’s very shocking,\u201d Ahmad added.<\/p>\n

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Twitter that he was \u201cdeeply concerned by this incident at London Central Mosque. Every Londoner is entitled to feel safe in their place of worship & I want to reassure London’s communities that acts of violence in our city will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Muslims have been the target of past attacks by far-right extremists. In June 2018, an attacker drove a van into a crowd of people leaving evening prayers in London. One man died and a dozen people were injured.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that he was \u201cdeeply saddened to hear of the attack at the London Central Mosque.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s so awful that this should happen, especially in a place of worship,\u201d Johnson wrote. \u201cMy thoughts are with the victim and all those affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 A man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after an official at one of London’s biggest mosques …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":245653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-jill-lawless","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245654,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245652\/revisions\/245654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}