The Origins

Summary

Four suicide bombers struck in central London on the morning of Thursday, 7 July 2005. In the coordinated attacks, known since then as 7/7, bombs went off on trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770. Exactly a fortnight later, there were four more attempts to attack the city's transport system, but only the detonators of the bombs exploded, and there were no casualties.

What happened was terrifying. The consequences were terrible. Among Londoners at large, many felt stressed and frightened even months after 7/7. Researchers from King's College London who quizzed 574 members of the public seven months after the attacks found that 11 per cent were “substantially stressed”, while 43 per cent thought that their lives were in danger, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported. Lead researcher Dr Neil Greenberg, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said: “Clearly terrorist attacks can have psychological effects on the general public.” Liz Prosser, from a support group offering counselling and legal help, added:

Attacks like 7 July can have a long-lasting impact. You don't need to have been at the scene. People just caught up in the chaos of the day phoned us for help and I think for people who just live and work in London there is a psychological impact.

The consequences of 7/7 were terrible. The backlash to it was horrible for innocent British Muslims who were blamed for the acts of four terrorists. The victims of 7/7 were people of many nationalities, both British and non-British, both whites and non-whites, both Muslims and non-Muslims. This was to be expected of London, a cosmopolitan city famed for its multicultural composition. However, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, “this diversity became a target for some individuals who misused the religious background of the bombers as an excuse for racist attacks and abuses against members of minority communities, British Muslims in particular”.