Linda Hall: One Love Manchester concert shows British have the upper hand despite terrorists

Linda Hall, assistant editor, Hawke's Bay Today.

Opinion

I can remember in the early seventies when the 6 o'clock news was dominated with the bombings in Ireland.

According to Wikipedia there were at least 10,000 bomb attacks during "the troubles" between 1969-to 1998.

The Provisional IRA used guerrilla warfare against the British Army in an effort to force it to withdraw from Northern Ireland.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed before peace was declared.

Horrible as it was, the IRA mostly targeted soldiers - men and women who had signed up to fight or defend their country.

Now, almost 30 years later, Isis is dominating the news with its terrible tide of attacks.

The difference is the people carrying out these attacks aren't doing it in the name of their county or their religion.

They are doing it because they follow a group who have twisted the words of Islam to justify their disgusting terrorist acts.

How anyone can believe it's okay to go to a stadium fill of innocent, mostly young people, and blow themselves up knowing people around them will die, is just incomprehensible to me.

May 27 was the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan - 30 days of fasting and reflection.

And that's exactly what real Muslims will be doing.

Some people need to be reminded that true Muslims are not Isis.

It's Isis members who have been called by their leaders to rise up during the holy month and "attack them in their homes, their markets, their roads, and their forums" in a message published on YouTube, not every Muslim in the world.

As a Muslim leader said on television yesterday morning, "terrorism has no religion".

I'd really like to see how these cowardly terrorist would do in the trenches of Gallipoli.
They wouldn't last five minutes.

The response from the Brits, as usual, has been amazing. They are a resilient bunch, that's for sure.

The latest attacks, which left seven dead and 50 injured after they were stabbed in the face, neck and stomach and run over, took place on the eve of a concert with some of the biggest stars, including Katy Perry, Cold Play, Justin Bieber and Robbie Williams, to honour the 22 killed the week before at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

The One Love Manchester concert was an incredible show of solidarity, strength and remembrance, as well as an outpouring of love.

Perry's dress featured pictures of the 22 victims.

There were hundreds of thousands of people singing, chanting and crying and most of all proving that they were not going to be made to stay indoors for fear of attack.

I'd never heard of Ariana Grande before the terrible bombings at her concert.

Good on the American pop star for organising another concert to raise money for the victims of the bombing.

There were some incredibly touching moments during the show, including when the choir from Parrs Wood High School, near Stockport, performed.

One of the girls was so overcome when Grande went on stage and joined them that she broke down in tears and they held hands. Grande sang alongside her and hugged her.

The last I heard yesterday was that the concert had raised $16 million and climbing.

The money will go into a trust to help the victims of the bombings.

That is just amazing.

I bet Isis would hate seeing the British show their resilience and defiance like that.

The British are the leaders in this fight, whereas Isis are followers, followers of people with sick and twisted minds.

* Linda Hall is assistant editor of Hawke's Bay Today.