RIP To The Woolwich Soldier.

I am horrified beyond belief at the terrible attack in Woolwich, London yesterday. To take a man's life in such a sick and barbaric way is inexcusable and My heart goes out to the victim, his family and all those who were deeply affected by this atrocity. No words can express My sympathies.

And in the midst of all this, there are two things which bother Me.

Firstly, since the news broke of this attack, I saw status updates on Facebook and tweets on Twitter of a racist, anti-muslim nature. Now I am not defending what these two monsters did, and nor am I excusing it. But it is My feeling that these two individuals did this purely for propaganda reasons. This is clear from the way they stood around around after the attack, demanding they be photographed and filmed by horrified on-lookers. They set out to cause a storm, to create unrest and to have their huge moment in the spotlight.

By lowering ourselves into racist and anti-muslim statements, we are giving these people exactly what they want. And indeed this we saw last night when EDL decided to jump on the bandwagon and "protest" in Woolwich. Not appropriate at all. What that area of London needed last night was calm, and respect, not a load of bone-heads after a ruckus. And let's be honest - the EDL don't need much of an excuse at the best of times.

We also saw attacks on Mosques in Kent and Essex - a direct result of the Woolwich attack - thus further giving the perps the coverage they wanted. Surely it's best to rise above all this?

The other thing which bothers Me is the coverage by the media. I was watching the news last night from the moment I was alerted to the attack until gone midnight. And all I could see was repeated flashing of that awful image of one of the attackers - blood on his hands, and brandishing a knife and cleaver. The media have played right into those hands by doing this. I also saw that the reports and coverage were very one-sided. It was all about the attackers themselves and very little coverage about the victim. It was almost as if the victim was insignificant, and that the attackers should take the lime-light - which is of course what they wanted. No doubt today's newspapers will have that awful image plastered across their front pages, thus fanning the flames of such propaganda.

I prefer not to call this incident a "terrorist attack", because I don't want to give the attackers any more notoriety than they have already received. Neither do I want to make a point about the fact that they just happen to be Muslim. As far as I'm concerned, this is murder. Two men murdered another in the worst way possible. I prefer to keep the flaming statements out of it.

Now here's were it's very worrying. These men are gaining exactly what they set out to achieve. It was not about Islam, and it was not about our troops being in Iraq or Afghanistan. It was about causing a storm, and My fear is that if this isn't handled very carefully, very sensibly, with the media staying away from sensationalism, I predict some serious civil unrest in the weeks to come. This will become a nationwide trend if we are not careful, and more innocent victims will suffer - victims of all backgrounds.

Because of the actions of some, it is so sad to see that all Muslims are tarred with the same brush. To some people, the word "terrorist" in the English dictionary is closely followed by the words "see Muslim." I have many Muslim friends. In fact I have friends from all religions, and they are all quick to condemn what happened yesterday. They repeatedly say that the actions of radicals do not reflect the rest of them, and that is true.

Let's remember some fundamental points of attacks like the one in London yesterday, and all such attacks across the world. What are the goals? Maximum impact, maximum coverage, maximum exposure. Remember the various beheading videos doing the rounds? Why do you think these people sent the tapes to various news agencies? Think about it!

The best form of defence in these circumstances is and always will be; not to feed the propaganda machine. Rise above the racist and anti-muslim statements - we are better than that. And don't give those responsible what they crave - exposure. It will only fuel more hatred and extremism.