, Columnist
The Mundane Radicalism of Today's Terror
Islamist and anti-Muslim attackers take similar paths to violence and terror.
What's a radical?
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The U.K. tabloids hesitated about what to call the white driver of a van who crashed into a crowd of worshippers at the Finsbury Park mosque in London on Monday. But Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling tweeted furiously that he was no less a terrorist than the perpetrators of recent Islamic State-inspired attacks.
"Let's talk about how the Finsbury Park terrorist was radicalized," she wrote, and posted a picture of nationalist politician Nigel Farage standing in front of an anti-refugee billboard. How Darren Osborne, the van driver, was radicalized is a fair question, if indeed he can be called a radical.