<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;" align="center">According to the Met Police, the number of acid related attacks in London have spiked since 2010. Acid attacks are an Islamic custom.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Specifically, there have been more than 1,800 reports of these type of attacks within the last seven years. But the most disturbing figure is that a third of the total of these attacks occurred just in 2016, with 431 attacks. This is a 250% jump from 2015, which had a total of 261 acid crimes.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The majority of these crimes occurred in the borough of Newham in east London. Unfortunately, most of these cases don&rsquo;t reach trial.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;The attacks are notoriously used occasionally in the Islamic world by angry suitors seeking revenge on women who rebuff marriage proposals, or commit other &ldquo;shameful&rdquo; acts. Charities consulted by British media said 80 percent of all acid attack victims globally are women,&rdquo; writes <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Daily Caller.</em> &ldquo;London, however, has the opposite trend. Nearly 80 percent of acid attack victims in the city are men.&rdquo;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most of these kinds of attacks are gang-related according to Jaf Shah, the executive director of the support group Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI.)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;Looking at the data in general, there is a fairly large probability that a high percentage of the incidents are male-on-male attacks and most likely to be gang-related,&#8221; said Shah to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Guardian</em>. &ldquo;The numbers appear to be very high and suggest an increase, which is very concerning.&#8221;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A former gang member also told <em>the Guardian</em> that acid has become a more common and acceptable weapon by gangs. It also sends a brutal message. ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&ldquo;Acid is used as an extreme mark of dominance. It&rsquo;s letting the individual know I haven&rsquo;t killed you, but it&rsquo;s almost worse than that, it&rsquo;s a mark &ndash; on your face. It&rsquo;s a sinister legacy,&rdquo; said one former UK gang member to <em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Mirror.</em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Acid is also much easier to get a hold of. This is influencing gangs to trade in their knives for acid.  ;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;It&#8217;s not prohibitive to carry bleach, you can buy it online or any DIY stores, it&#8217;s difficult to prove any illegal motive in carrying it and you can hide it or disguise it in a drink bottle,&#8221; said Dr Simon Harding, Criminologist at Middlesex University. &#8220;A knife attack is attempted murder, but if you&#8217;re caught in an acid attack it would be GBH (Grievous bodily harm.) There&#8217;s no specific offence regarding acid attacks&#8221;</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong>Author&rsquo;s note: </strong>But where are these gangs getting the idea to use acid in the first place? Acid attacks are barbaric, but this happens in the Middle East all the time. It is often used to shame women who have expose bare skin and have not followed Islamic principles. This type of weapon should not be tolerated in the civilized world. ;It is not a coincidence that the spike occurred when there has been an influx of Middle Eastern refugees. Is this the culture we want to import into America?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Editor&#8217;s note: As a former intelligence officer I traveled frequently to the Middle East in the &#8217;80&#8217;s and &#8217;90&#8217;s where this was used as a religious punishment for women exposing bare skin. I remember thinking how glad I was that the civilized world was beyond this barbaric custom. London has brought this barbarism upon itself.</p>
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