British authorities, however, never dare to discuss or examine, much less confront, the actual nature of that “terrorist motive.”
The Islamic State issued this call in September 2014:
So O muwahhid, do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawaghit. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be….If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him….
“Westminster crash: Salih Khater found guilty of attempted murder,” Sky News, July 17, 2019:
A 30-year-old man has been found guilty of trying to kill people outside the Houses of Parliament.
Salih Khater has been convicted of two charges of attempted murder after he crashed his Ford Fiesta into a security barrier in Westminster on 14 August last year.
A jury at the Old Bailey, in central London, reached their verdict following a trial in which the prosecution claimed Khater intended to “kill as many people as possible” in a “premeditated and deliberate attack”.
The court was told Khater’s reason for the attack was unclear, but the prosecution added – by targeting officers guarding the Houses of Parliament – he had a “terrorist motive”.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Khater’s silver car driving at cyclists at rush hour in the capital before crashing into barriers as two uniformed police officers dived out of the way.
The court was told Khater was travelling at 32mph before his car came to a halt.
Khater, of Highgate Street, Birmingham, denied the two charges of attempted murder and the two alternative charges of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.
He told the court he travelled from his home to London to visit the Sudanese embassy for a visa after failing to get a fast-track passport to visit his sick mother.
Asked to explain his driving, Khater said: “I was just lost. I was just lost in London.”
He added he was in a state of “confusion and hesitation” and “something made me panic”.
Khater told the court he was trying to “find somewhere that I’m familiar with”, when asked why he had Googled directions to 10 Downing Street before the crash.
The court heard how Khater was born in Sudan and was granted asylum and British citizenship in 2010, after claiming he had been tortured over his association with a political group….