The London Bridge attack demonstrates once again that terrorists have a crucial tactical advantage. They choose when and where to strike from a near limitless supply of soft targets. They are also adept at exploiting the relative openness of democratic societies by blending in, only to betray their malevolence at the last moment, in the violence of the deed.
In the absence of any sure means of establishing authorial intent, a plurality of interpretations, be they “moderate” or “radical”, can be made and defended. Indeed, this is one of the factors which accounts for the fractional and heterogeneous nature of the wider “Muslim world”. It follows then that Islamic doctrines can be used to justify either violence or non-violence.