Global terror The pictures of the London bombing victims tell of individual stories of sorrow. But collectively the faces staring from newspaper pages, television screens or posters stuck to the walls near blast sites reflect one of the defining characteristics of the capital: its remarkable cultural diversity.
From the Polish IT worker and the accountant from Mauritius to the Muslim Tunisian student working as a waiter or the Italian economist, the victims reflect the wide range of nationalities and religions that make up the 7.2m inhabitants of the city – a third of whom come from overseas.
“As with the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the poignant photographs and biographies [of the victims] make absolutely clear the cosmopolitan nature of the London population,” said Tony Travers from the London School of Economics. “They are entirely representative of a globalised city.”
Victims of bombings
Marie Fatayi-Williams – whose son Anthony, an executive with Amec, a construction group, is among the missing – gave voice to that diversity in an emotional appeal. “Anthony is a Nigerian, born in London, worked in London; he is a world citizen. Here today we have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, all of us united in love for Anthony,” she said, standing near the site where a bus, which her son was believed to be travelling on, was blown apart.
Her comments echo statements from politicians and community leaders over the past few days who have all celebrated the multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition of London – a quality that many believe the perpetrators of last week’s attacks wanted to undermine.
Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said the bombers wanted “to divide this city because of its easy-going, multi-cultural mix. The fact that people work together and live together is an affront to them.”
OPT CUT Writing in one of several books of condolence which were opened on Monday, Tessa Jowell, the minister for culture, noted that “our strength is our diversity and tolerance”. These qualities had played a decisive role in London’s success in winning the bid the host the 2012 Olympics, she said in an earlier BBC radio interview.
Some 27 per cent of Londoners were born outside the UK, compared with 6 per cent for the rest of the country, according to data gathered in the 2001 census. Taking into account the several hundred thousand illegal migrants estimated to be in the UK, the real number of Londoners born outside Britain was likely to be closer to 33 per cent, said Mr Travers.
Whereas in past decades, many migrants came from former colonies, the majority of more recent arrivals come from non-Commonwealth countries – particularly from eastern Europe, Latin America and Francophone Africa. London’s attractions include a vibrant economy, a lightly regulated labour market and a tradition of tolerance.
Richard Weight, a historian who has written on national identity, said diversity “is London’s identity”. Some 300 languages are spoken in the city’s schools.
While not completely free of tensions, inter-ethnic relations had also improved over the past decade, according to Mr Phillips, a black Briton whose parents come from the Caribbean. He said it was “remarkable” that there had been few incidents of a backlash against the Muslim community in the wake of last week’s attacks, which are widely believed to be the work of Islamist extremists.
Terror attacks by the IRA in London and elsewhere, for instance, had prompted a backlash against Irish communities, Mr Weight said.
“Five or 10 years ago I think we would have found ourselves in a position of great tension this weekend where people were pointing the finger at one community specifically,” Mr Phillips said. “This is a real watershed for this country.”
