Saturday, May 15, 2010

British MP stabbed by veiled woman (Updated)

Impromptu "surgery" on Labour MP Stephen Timms at a surgery – a meeting with constituents – when an obviously disgruntled woman stabbed him in the abdomen twice. AP reports that "neither Timms nor his staff recognized" the woman.


Bystander Sagal Ahmed describes the scene:



I heard a big commotion, everyone was screaming. There was a women wearing Muslim clothing, an orange headscarf and a black veil. A security guard grabbed her from behind.

There was a mother with her baby screaming, everyone was in shock. I think it was a vendetta, who would go into a library with a knife?



Gee, I certainly hope it was a female security guard that grabbed the unrecognizable woman hiding behind a black veil: if she has been touched by a strange male her family's going to have to kill her.


Update: The British mainstream media is acknowledging that Timm's attacker wore "Muslim dress" but does not yet identify her as Muslim, at the same time noting condolences from a Muslim group:



Shahid Mursaleen, spokesman for the Newham-based moderate Muslim organisation Minhaj-ul-Quran UK, said: "We are shocked and saddened to hear that Stephen Timms MP has been stabbed.

"Mr Timms has always been close to his constituency and a friend of Muslims living in east London. He has been a good friend of Minhaj-ul-Quran.

"We wish him well and his recovery to be soon and hope that he can resume his position as MP of East Ham soon."



India's NDTV has no qualms about specifying the attacker's relgious affiliation:


Former British minister and senior Labour MP Stephen Timms escaped death narrowly after being attacked by a knife-wielding Muslim woman, a resident of his constituency.

The BBC notes neither the attacker's dress nor her possible religious affiliation, however.


 

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gee, I hope the isn't a backlash against other knife-wielding women of no particular appearance.

9:56 PM  
Anonymous Alan Ji said...

East Ham and West Ham are the most ethnically diverse places in the UK.

BBC website: Roshonara Choudhary, 21, of East Ham, has been charged with attempted murder and two counts of possession of an offensive weapon.

12:29 AM  
Anonymous Ian said...

It's not original but, and I paraphrase...
"Muslim group warns of backlash from tomorrow's stabbing of MP."

3:03 AM  
Anonymous HRT said...

"Human being completed circumnavigated of a planet yesterday. The person arrived in a city in one of the hemispheres. The person was met by people".

That should not offend anyone - should be OK for the BBC.

4:56 AM  
Anonymous Intrigued Asian reader said...

This is what we've come to expect from Asia's best blogger: Bangkok is in crisis and you're carrying on about news from the UK so you can get links from your News Ltd boyfriend and stir up bigoted comments from Dan Lewis. Give us a break, Beck. Asian Correspondent my arse.

8:32 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home