After the knife attack on three people at Leytonstone underground station in east London on Saturday, a bystander shouted
“You ain’t no Muslim, bruv” at the perpetrator. As footage emerged, this phrase quickly became a symbol of defiant unity.
Among the 100,000 tweets and rising, you find sentiments that distance the attacker from religion. Most are full of pride for the diverse embrace of London: “Soo proud to be a Londoner. True Muslims don’t try and kill innocent bystanders. Peace to true Muslims”; and “I love that #YouAintNoMuslimBruv is trending. The best response possible. So proud to be a Londoner.
Leytonstone is one of London’s many diverse tube stops, with numerous languages spoken in the area. This diversity has bred further contempt for an act that is so at odds with the capital’s sensibilities of inclusion and community cohesion.
The constant strain that many Muslims experience in being associated with violence that they strongly condemn is somewhat relieved by such hashtags, which give much-needed assurance that the vast majority of people are not going to be dictated to by extremist acts or assertions, along with many other hashtags such as #PorteOuverte and #StandWithAhmed.