It's inhumane...and it's personal!

I had a real shock turning the TV on after work on Thursday to see the scale of destructions and chaos the London bombings had caused. I first got to know about it from the radio on my way home but I thought little about it… Don’t get me wrong, I lived in London for a few years and every now and then, there would be small packages exploded here and there but rarely did those caused much damage. When I was staying at College Hall on Malet Street (which is just a short distance walk from Tavistock Square, Kings Cross and Russell Square), we had to evacuate the place numerous times due to bomb scare and we just got used to it. After a while, bomb scares were just like fire drills here in Malaysia.. You just have to leave the buildings just to follow the procedures, but you can still take you time, walk out casually while chatting to your friends. Bad, I know but that’s life isn’t it.. you just take certain things for granted. Subconsciously, you always think that nothing as bad as bomb explosions can happen to you. If it’s going to happen, it has to happen elsewhere but never in your area…

So, it shook me to the core when I saw the images on CNN that Thursday night. I could practically recognised most of the areas shown and it was just unbelievable to see that a place that I used to call used home was so badly affected by such an inhumane act. Tavistock Square, where a bomb exploded on a bus and killed about 13 people was just about 5 minutes away from my Pharmacy school. During my years there, I passed by Russell Square station at least twice a day to go to classes, so it was just shocking to see the same path that I used to walk everyday then was used on Thursday to wheel out injured and dead people!

At weekends, I used to be Kings Cross- St Pancras’ faithful visitor, either to take a train out to Sheffield to see a loved one or to pick up friends coming from all over the UK for exciting weekends in the metropolitan city. Otherwise, I would take the forever-packed Piccadilly line from there or Russell Square to go for cinemas or shopping trips… And oh, Edgware road station, that would be where I usually take my tube ride home after dinner at Mawar restaurant or Satay House at the end of my day-out.. how could the same always-packed piccadilly line and tube stations now be the victims of terrorists satisfying their sick needs? Why attacking innocent people? And why do it in the name of Islam when we all know that in Islam itself, violence and killings of the innocents are ‘haram’?

Eventhough I’m not in London anymore, I just feel that my own space has been violated by the blasts. It is getting personal now…



My sincere condolences to the victims and families affected by the bombings. May the culprits be caught and brought to justice soon…