The terrorist bombs in London buses and trains yesterday, which killed at least 37 people and injured and maimed some 700 others, are a wicked attack on one of the world's major cities - and against all the cosmopolitan and multicultural values it represents.
Their timing to coincide with the G8 summit in Scotland was intended to express hatred of the world power system its leaders represent. In fact it is directed just as much against all their peoples. They make up a majority of the world's population when account is taken of the Asian, African and Latin American leaders also at the summit who stood behind Tony Blair yesterday as he defended the values of civility and democracy.
The International Olympic Committee decision vindicates London's suitability to hold the 2012 Games precisely because of these values. The attacks are all the more despicable coming after the remarkable display of international solidarity at the Live8 concerts in London and elsewhere which aimed to influence the summit agenda.
As mayor of London Ken Livingstone said yesterday, this "was not aimed at the presidents or prime ministers. It was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. Indiscriminate slaughter irrespective of any consideration for age, class, religion, whatever". London's wonderful diversity is a standing rejection of the presumed Islamic fundamentalism which motivated the attacks and the main reason they will fail, as Mr Livingstone underlined.
And Mr Blair, in a moving and dignified statement made in London, said the purpose of terrorism is just that - to terrorise people. But people will not be intimidated, changed or divided. As he recognised, Londoners' stoicism and resilience will carry them through these atrocities. The tributes paid to the emergency services yesterday were richly deserved.
Over the last week London and Britain have been the focus of international attention because of the G8 summit, the mobilisation of awareness and protest about its agenda and the possibility that all of these factors combined could make a real difference to millions of the poorest people in the world. The same applies to the summit's agenda on climate change and world economic co-ordination.
These atrocities fly in the face of this progressive engagement with such issues and contradict its animating spirit. They are intended to divide and disable the dynamic involved. They have nothing in common with the open questioning of political priorities followed by the most powerful world leaders which has been such a positive feature of these movements. Nor do they contribute anything to the case made by people who oppose the war in Iraq, which was invoked yesterday in an unconfirmed statement made by those claiming to be responsible. Those responsible for 7/07 must not be allowed to intimidate Londoners in their normal life.