Yesterday a deplorable and unthinkable act took place in Woolwich. Two men attacked a serving soldier in broad daylight with knives, machetes, and a meat cleaver. When the Baghdad-style murder was complete, the two men implored the public to film and photograph them - the blood still dripping from their hands. They made no attempt to flee from the police in a macabre piece of theatre supposedly intended to bring forth a show-trial. One disturbing eye-witness account even advances that one of the men danced around the body hollering “God is great” and other Islamist slogans.

One of the murderers was filmed by a bystander calling for Britain to “remove Government”. He apologised that women had had to witness the act, but stated “In our land, our women have to see the same” prompting the presupposition that the two men acted in retaliation for British armed forces involvement overseas. The ominous threat “You people will never be safe” means the incident is now believed to be the latest terrorist attack to hit our streets (coming just 8 years after the London bombings). David Cameron cut short a visit to Paris to chair a COBRA meeting, and the incident is now being investigated by the counter-terrorist unit. It was perhaps the saddest thing I have ever seen on British television.

This disgusting and unforgivable act has rightly been condemned by people of all faiths and races throughout the UK. But sadly it appears it is now being used as collaterol to further a racist EDL agenda with Mosques being targeted in Essex and Kent. Protesters met in London pubs and sang nationalist songs and bottles and missiles were thrown at police.

“Enough is enough. Our message is enough, enough. We have weak leaders. Our police, our leaders tip-toe around this issue” EDL leader, Stephen Lennon.

My Facebook timeline and Twitter feed was rife with loaded knee-jerk and narrow-minded comments that in many ways were just as frightening and self-prophecising as the acts of these two men. The idea that the EDL is using this atrocity to stir hatred in a community that has already been beset by such tragedy, is just disgusting. It’s truly depressing and frightening that people are capable of such irrational and woefully misguided sentiments.

The reaction is nothing short of inflammatory and speaks volumes about the worrisome ignorance prevalent in this country. I can just see Lennon and Griffin eagerly rubbing their hands together and whipping out their Blackberries. Tensions are high in this country; immigration laws are hotly contested, and there is much uncertainty over our future in Europe. We simply do not need to further racist propaganda when our precarious political climate calls for calm and intelligent discussion. If this was simply naivety we could dismiss it with the wave of a hand, but seeing people I know praise the EDL, I’m shocked and appalled. This is exactly the sort of divisive unrest the terrorists sought to instigate in the first place.

I’m not suggesting this seemingly home-grown self radicalisation is justifiable. Of course it isn’t. It seems the men drew inspiration from extremist Jihadism. The incident doesn’t appear to have been organised online and seems to be a ‘lone wolf operation’. There are therefore legitimate concerns over whether this low tech unsophisticated (and most notably, decentrally orchestrated) attack could ever happen again. We have no idea if this individual was deliberately targeted and some reconnaissance had taken place, or whether it was random opportunism.

The only information we have is proffered by Richard Watson (Newsnight correspondent) who talks of a source who knows the British Jihadist scene very well. This source cites that one of the perpetrators was Nigerian in origin living in the UK for many years, and was radicalised by the group Al Muhajiroun in 2003 (a banned Islamist organisation that was based in Britain and which has been linked to international terrorism). Just last year this young man was stopped on his way to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

If this is true, it’s incredibly disconcerting. Hearing narrative popularised by Al-Qaeda spoken in a South London accent is truly terrifying. How could such grotesque rhetoric inspire a man who might not have even visited the nation(s) he purports to be defending? So utterly indoctrinated was he that he referred to a presently unidentified nation (that British armed forces have presumably invaded) as his ‘Land’. Clearly some work need to be done to produce counter-narratives that seek to neutralise the odious rhetoric touted by extremists. After all, even key voices in the Muslim faith have admitted that the default political expression for any young disenfranchised Muslim is currently this perversion of Islam that is so damaging to an otherwise peaceful religion.

Disturbingly, also on Newsnight, Lib Dem peer Lord Carlile (Independent reviewer of anti terrorist legalisation from 2001 - 2011), states that because of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, this event was sadly predicted. Abandonment of the Communications Data Bill means our security forces no longer have proportionate tools to catch such vigilante terrorists.

We need to now let the counter-terrorist unit do their job - as evidenced above, it’s a big one that will take some time. They’ll need to get into the minds of these individuals and find out just how they were indoctrinated. It is only then we’ll be able to infiltrate and destroy any others within this extremist faction. It is pointless trying to speculate about what the legacy of this incident will be until such intelligence is gathered, by trained and skilled officers. This is the only response we need right now - not a tantrum by the parasitic EDL. The strapline on the website states “NOT RACIST. NOT VIOLENT. NO LONGER SILENT” - an utterly moronic slogan as it’s so fundamentally untrue. They do not embrace multi-culturalism, they are renowned for violent clashes with police and sub-cultures, and sadly they have never been silent.

Two extremists are just that. Two extremists in a population of 63 million. Their motivations and actions are not shared by all Muslims in the UK. This atrocity has in fact been quickly dubbed a heresy by Muslim leaders here in the UK and this statement has been released by the Muslim Council of Britain:

“This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly…. Muslims have long served in this country’s Armed Forces, proudly and with honour…. This attack on a member of the Armed Forces is dishonourable, and no cause justifies this murder…. We call on all our communities, Muslim and non-Muslim, to come together in solidarity to ensure the forces of hatred do not prevail.”

As David Cameron states “We don’t buckle down to pressure from terrorists” - whether they act in the name of Islam, or under the vengeful guise of the English Defence League.