"You ain't no sympathiser with mental illness, bruv!"

On December 5th (my birthday, incidentally), 29-year-old Muhaydin Mire of Leytonstone attacked three passengers on the London Underground using a 3-inch knife. The attack, which took place at Leytonstone Station, left one victim with serious injuries and the other two with minor stab wounds. At the height of the assault, the perpetrator was heard to say, "This is for Syria" and "blood will be spilled", leading police, the media and the public to interpret the attack as a "terrorist incident". In response to Mire's words, one man was heard to shout, "you ain't no Muslim, bruv", prompting the hashtag #YouAin'tNoMuslimBruv, which denounced those who use the Islamic faith as a reason for their violent behaviour, to trend on Twitter. The Guardian noted that the phrase was "a perfect riposte to attempts to spread violence and terror in London", while The Independent stated that "the phrase has become a unifying call among people condemning the attack on social media", and David Cameron remarked that, " Some of us have dedicated speeches and media appearances and sound-bites and everything to this subject, but 'you ain't no Muslim, bruv' says it all, much better then I ever could, and thank you because that will be applauded all around the country." Imam Imran Patel of Leytonstone Mosque said that Mire was not a member of his congregation, and that "we strongly condemn any sort of violence and terrorism". Only the local Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, John Cryer, while describing the attack as "barbaric", urged caution in linking it to British airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, saying that to do so would be "dangerous".
Indeed, in the seeming headlong rush to see what happened as a terrorist incident, what was seemingly overlooked was that Muhaydin Mire had a history of mental illness. In an interview on Channel 4 News, Mire's family told of how he had been admitted to hospital in 2007, spending three months there to be treated for paranoia. His brother went on to say how the traits of his illness seemed to re-emerge only a few months before the attack, and of how when working as an Uber driver in London Muhaydin had started to call him and say unusual things, such as that he was seeing demons and being followed. His brother stated that the content of these calls was not to do with any sort of radicalisation, but rather only "talking nonsense". The family then sought to get Muhaydin urgent medical help, but with little success. He was seen by the police in October and the family tried to have him sectioned only a month before the attack. Unfortunately it appears that little was done, with Muhaydin being left to get worse and ultimately commit the aforesaid offences.
It seems to me, then, that this is as much a story about a broken and demoralised mental health service which allows people to become so unwell that they represent a danger to either themselves or others, as much as it is a story of ISIS-inspired terrorism. But, the full facts of the case are not yet known, and whether Mire had indeed become radicalised is yet to be seen. For the moment, though, it would seem sensible, at least to me, to be reticent with any talk of terrorism. One supposes that because of what he said during the attack, the police can't rule out any possibility, and one feels for the victims innocently caught up in the melee, but the state of mind Mire was in at the time of the incident must surely bring about the question of whether there was true belief and intent behind his words, or if they were merely the rantings of someone who had become dangerously unwell. After Paris it would appear that we were all too ready for such an attack, and really, one also feels for the family of Muhaydin, who tried desperately to get him help, and who now see a man they love not only branded with the appellation "mentally ill", but also the demon "terrorist".