Of course, it is important to emphasize that my experience was a minor inconvenience compared with the suffering of the families of those killed and of those who have been injured. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

London’s history is full of fire and violence, as Peter Ackroyds books about London history show. Today’s attacks will become part of that ever growing history, just as the blitz is part of London’s identity.

Now the debates will begin about who carried out these outrages. Were they al-Qaeda operatives? People from outside the UK or home grown terrorists? Who else would they have been? Very unlikely to have been the IRA. The pattern is al-Qaeda. What relation does this bear to the G8 summit in Gleneagles? To the choice of London as the Olympic city for 2012?

This is from the BBC news website:

The BBC has located an Islamist website that has published a 200-word statement issued by an organisation saying it carried out the London bombings.

The organisation calls itself the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda [literally the base] of Jihad Organisation in Europe.

The group is previously unknown.

The website has previously carried statements purporting to be from al-Qaeda. It is not possible to verify such claims published on the web.

This is the full text of the statement.

“In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God’s peace be upon him.

“Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.

“We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

“We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.

“God says: ‘You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.’”

I’m just watching Newsnight. Tony Benn is trying to put the blame on the British and American governments for the existence for al-Qaeda, and Zaki Badawi denies that al-Qaeda exists as anything more than as a loosely linked movement and has no particular link to Bin Laden. Both seem to me to be wrong.

Clearly people are interpreting today’s events in terms of their own ideologies and opinions. We shall have to wait for the police and security forces to complete their investigations, but I have no doubt that Islamists carried out the attacks - in ways that will undoubtedly have horrified my very good (and moderate) Muslim friends, such as Imam Sajid.

So this was the day that the security warnings were preparing us for. The day after we celebrated London’s getting the 2012 Olympic Games, we’re plunged into the horrors of a bombing campaign on the Underground and the destruction of a bus near Tavistock Square.

For a detailed description of what happened it’s worthing looking at the BBC News website and the Going Underground blog for Thursday 7 June.

I happened to be the day’s opening speaker at a Sufi conference on non-violence at Goldsmiths College in New Cross first thing this morning. I arrived at New Cross by about 8.30am and so missed the disruption on the way there. And I was able to get back from New Cross Gate to London Bridge by about 11.30am, but from there on, I had to walk back to Knightsbridge and my office. There were no tubes, no buses and the taxis were all occupied. It’s quite a long walk - it took me about two hours (but I did take half-an-hour out for a sandwich on the way). I walked along the south bank of the Thames, past Southwark Cathedral and the Tate Modern, under a lowring sky and with my umbrella raised against drizzle blown on the keen wind (and increasing to quite a downpour by the time I got as far as Knightsbridge Tube station).

The Thames Clippers river buses were still going up and down the river and I later found out that they were offering free rides. I could have gone up river to Westminster Pier and saved my feet and my shoe leather.

Police boats were speeding up and down the river, as was a large inflatable carrying a number of what looked like police marksmen.

Londoners are pretty phlegmatic at times like these and I saw many people in business suits walking, presumably to meetings with their brief cases. However, I did hear one fairly idiotic comment from three blokes walking along the Embankment in the same direction as me. One of them commented, “Any excuse not to run trains on the Underground.” I thought a series of explosions was a pretty good excuse, and I don’t think Transport for London could have done anything other than close down the Underground and the buses.

I walked along the south bank as far as Blackfriars and crossed the river by the Blackfriars bridge. Walked along the Embankment, past Temple, Waterloo Bridge, Charing Cross, until I got to Westminster and then turned inland, Parliament Square, Victoria Street, Grosvenor Place, Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge.

The pictures on the BBC news tonight were horrific. This morning as I was on the train from London Bridge to New Cross Gate I thought with some pride and excitement about the fact that London has been awarded the Olympic Games. What a great city London is, I thought. But on the way back, I thought with sorrow and horror about the impact of the bombs on London. We were plunged so quickly from the joy of victory in the contest for the games to the fear and terror of these attacks.

In such circumstances the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá I quoted in my address to the Sufi conference are particularly relevant:

“The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease 20 between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers.”

“O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.

“The Blessed Beauty saith: ‘Ye are all the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch.’ Thus hath He likened this world of being to a single tree, and all its peoples to the leaves thereof, and the blossoms and fruits. It is needful for the bough to blossom, and leaf and fruit to flourish, and upon the interconnection of all parts of the world-tree, dependeth the flourishing of leaf and blossom, and the sweetness of the fruit.

“For this reason must all human beings powerfully sustain one another and seek for everlasting life; and for this reason must the lovers of God in this contingent world become the mercies and the blessings sent forth by that clement King of the seen and unseen realms. Let them purify their sight and behold all humankind as leaves and blossoms and fruits of the tree of being. Let them at all times concern themselves with doing a kindly thing for one of their fellows, offering to someone love, consideration, thoughtful help. Let them see no one as their enemy, or as wishing them ill, but think of all humankind as their friends; regarding the alien as an intimate, the stranger as a companion, staying free of prejudice, drawing no lines.”