YORK

               Yasser Ahmed pulled the van to a halt. He turned to the passenger who occupied the front seat and smiled. Omar Squire smiled back at him nervously. Omar had entered Britain just two days earlier on a flight from Pakistan. He was born a Muslim in the African country of Gambia and was just 23 years old. His childhood had been typical for that part of the world. Education was for the wealthy and war and poverty were the only certainties. The Gambia was a satellite country completely surrounded by the country of Senegal. Civil wars in the region had raged on and off for centuries creating famine and strife. The capital of Gambia, Banjul situated on the west coast of Africa had a healthy tourist industry. The influx of western European tourists coming into Gambia was a constant reminder of the inequalities of life. Tourists would spend more on an evening meal than the average Gambian could earn in a month. Bitterness and anger had festered in Omar Squire until he had reached the point where he felt that he had to act.

           Omar travelled across West Africa to the Sudan where he found solace in a religious training camp that was sponsored by Yasser Ahmed. The camp Mullahs had taught Omar that there would be no peace for the oppressed Muslim people of the world, until the Jewish and Christian enemies were crushed. Omar Squire spent two years in the Sudan until he had answered the call to arms from Yasser Ahmed himself. Now he was sat next to his Caliph wearing a suicide bomb vest.

           Explosive vests had first been used by the Tamil Tiger group, who are from Sri Lanka in 1991. A female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up and killed Rajiv Gandhi. Omar had made his explosive belt the previous day using some of the IRA Semtex that Yasser and his affiliates had purchased. He filled six metal cylinders with the plastic explosive and strapped them around his abdomen. He put on a waistcoat packed with steel ball bearings and screws. The explosive force would turn his jacket into an Omni-directional fragmentation grenade. A deadly spray of metal shrapnel would be unleashed upon detonation of the device.

          “Thank you, Caliph, for this great task that you have given to me. I will not let you down.” Omar Squire opened the door of the ice-cream van and walked toward the vast bulking towers of York Minster.

          York Minster is the largest gothic cathedral in northern Europe and is situated in the City of York, England. There has been a Christian house of worship on the site since the 300`s AD. The Minster is one hundred and forty meters long, and its three towers stand sixty meters high. Built from limestone the cathedral is a creamy white colour. Omar looked at the massive Great East Window as he approached the stone edifice. The seventy six feet tall Great East Window is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. It towered above him as he entered the building, heading for the main alter. The huge vaulted ceiling loomed overhead as he walked through the cathedral, Christian images were all around him and he suddenly became very frightened of dying. Every window depicted a story of Christ, everywhere Jesus seemed to be staring at him. The 2-million pieces of glass that make up the Minsters one hundred and twenty eight stained glass windows glowed as the sunlight filtered through them. The building felt so serine and holy that real doubt started to weaken his desire to commit this horrible evil act of aggression. Yasser had prayed with him that morning and he told him that fear and doubt would be sent to him by the devil. He must ignore them both and complete his task. Omar Squire heard a small girl crying close to him. He looked at the little girl and his heart softened even more; she had black African skin just like his own. Her eyes were wide and bright, full of life. Omar reached out and touched her wiry black hair that she wore platted against her head and she stopped crying immediately. She looked up at him, her eyes still full of tears and she tried to smile. The little girl looked similar to the three sisters that Omar had left at home in the Gambia. It seemed like such a long time since he had seen them. He didn’t even know if they were still alive and he felt very guilty for leaving them.

          “What is wrong with you, little one?” Omar asked the little girl. He wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and she tried to smile again. Her nose was running and Omar wiped the fluid away with the edge of his sleeve.

          “That statue makes me really sad. I don’t want Jesus to be hurting like that,” the little girl pointed to a plaster statue of Christ on the cross. It was a realistic image of a white European Jesus nailed to a wooden crucifix. The blood stained nails and thorns were clearly visible. The statue depicted how horrific crucifixion would be and left little to the imagination. It was a terrifying image for a five year old girl to face.

           The little girl`s father approached and looked at Omar suspiciously as he led her away, he scolded the child for becoming separated from her family. Omar was left alone with the memories of his young sisters in Africa and the image of a crucified Christ suffering on the cross to console him.

           Yasser looked at his watch and he knew that something had gone wrong. There had been no explosion yet he had watched Omar enter the cathedral fifteen minutes before. Suddenly people started running from the Minsters entrance doors in a panic. Tourists piled through the opening becoming squashed between the huge wooden doorframes and falling over each other. Hundreds of people were escaping the building. What was happening in there? Yasser could not investigate now; instead he started the engine in case he needed to leave in a hurry. Police sirens started to sound from a distance away, obviously alerted to the incident at the Minster.

           Omar Squire watched as the tourists left the holy building in a panicked crush. He waited until the very last one had gone. He had removed his ski jacket and shouted to the tourists to leave as he had a bomb. People ran away from the dark skinned man in all directions to exit the building as fast as they could. Omar had decided that he would not take any life but his own. His god would understand his reasoning behind his decision. He would still be awarded his place in heaven and hopefully he would be reunited with his long lost family there someday. He pressed the detonator button on his explosive vest. The statue of the crucified Christ seemed to smile at him as his body liquefied beneath the power of the bomb blast.

           Yasser felt the deafening thump of the explosion as the stained glass windows around the Minster disintegrated into a million pieces. Glass was blown three hundred yards from the building showering panicked tourists with coloured debris. The first part of the message had been delivered.