The big news yesterday was that someone had been stabbed at a mosque in London during the call to prayer and we all assumed that it would have been racially motivated or terrorist related, but it seems as though this isn’t actually the case.

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The victim has now been named and pictured as 69 year old Rafat Maqlad, the muezzin of the mosque (muezzin is the man who calls the prayers from the minaret of the mosque. He is well known and well respected in the community and it is thought that he previously had contact with the perpetrator, who is thought to be a 29 year old white man who has been hanging out at the mosque for the past three months. It’s being said that the two had interacted and the man was regularly seen in Maqlad’s office, as he often talked with new people at the mosque.

Not sure what’s going on there between them then, but as for the attack here’s what witness Ayaz Ahmad said about it:

Everybody’s reaction was shock and horror, the men were screaming.

It was a vicious attack. We 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 first-hand watching an attempted murder take place, it’s very shocking.

It would have been life threatening if it wasn’t for the worshippers who helped stop the guy and apprehend him.

I called the ambulance, the ambulance came within a matter of minutes.

I mean that’s good that the emergency services were so quick to respond and it’s also slightly less concerning that it seems like it wasn’t a racially aggravated/terrorrist attack and that there seems to be some genuine beef between these two men. Obviously not condoning that course of action, but it’s less worrying than a random act of violence, right? Wooly subject.

I imagine more details about the attacker will be released today – we’ll keep you updated.

For more of the same, check out the original video of the incident yesterday. Scary.