As a muslim that was my first thought as I put my face into both hands in fear. Seriously I should have thought about the victims first, but unfortunately these days that is not my first thought when things like that happen now, and worse still I had family aquaintances attending the event.
As fans, we spend a lot of time thinking about the club, players etc..and if a muslim had done that as an act of terrorism it would make me feel more shame and uneasy at the thought that a muslim just ruined in a most horrific way what was a club celebration for the ages.
I got the train home with two Muslim lads and they said more or less the same, they were appalled that one guy ruined it all and were concerned when the news first came out that it might have been a Muslim attack.
I felt the same as Fabio, hoped and relieved it wasn't, because unfortunately it just feeds the narrative of neanderthal fuck heads like Joey Barton.
I do understand where Peter is coming from though, in this day and age it's the common denominator with these sort of attacks, whether that's ultimately down to mental health, lone attackers, etc. you expect it to be an extremist or a far right fuckhead. 30 years ago if a bomb went off in mainland we'd assume it was the IRA, because that was the common denominator, experience and narratives at the time wired people's thinking. Unfortunately.
It's different today because there are so many wrong'uns with access to resources to take their "woe is me" shit out on another people, we need to not assume, but it's difficult. I don't think that's discriminatory, it's just probability. It's the idiots who then jump on socials/start a riot without knowing the facts who are the problem, because it fuels their already fucked up prejudices and somehow they think it justifies there actions, and the cycle goes on. Look at the conspiracy tin-foil shit that's out there already since Monday.
Sunday was fantastic before the incident, and once we all got our heads together, we enjoyed the rest of the night and stopped it ruining our celebrations. It's the only way to handle this shit. Sunday was such a fantastic advert for multiculturalism and football, we laughed joked and partied with people from all walks of life, I saw so many people in tears of sheer ecstasy and caught up in the massiveness of the day, kids from other countries with their families clinging to their parents completely overawed by the sheer scale of it all. They're the memories that will last with me forever, the incident is something that in time won't taint the day, the club or it's vast support. 1.5m people and aside from one moment of madness, I didn't see any trouble at all, just people together and happy and all the very best sides of humanity.