This week we were treated to a taste of militant Islam on the streets of Woolwich, London, when a couple of young Islamic radicals hacked an off-duty soldier to death with meat cleavers in the middle of the day.

What made this attack different from other terrorist attacks in the UK was that the attackers remained at the scene and talked to onlookers about what they had done.

What produced such coolness?

Their religion came into it; as they carried out the butchery they shouted “Allahu akbar” – Allah is great.

Retaliation was also part of it as they explained this was only a small killing by comparison to the extensive killings the UK forces were carrying out in their Islamic lands.

And there was the underlying aim of Islam conquest as they outlined the world in terms of “The World of Islam” and “The Other”.

Apparently UK Intelligence was aware of this threat since July 2011. A message on Shumukh al-Islam, a militant Web site linked to Al Qaeda, urged followers to mount “lone-wolf operations” that might include beheadings.

The Media have taken their usual line that Islam is a religion of peace and these atrocities are the work of a handful of extremists.

Surprisingly the great and good of the 2.5 million Muslim in the UK have not poured onto the streets in an outpouring of revulsion. A couple of dozen Sikhs did turn out in Woolwich offering their sympathy and expressing their fear that there might be some backlash on their community.

The silence of the Muslim majority, which can be so demonstrative over its dislike of “Western Policies” when they do not please their Imams, must encourage their extremists to attempt further copy-cat killings.

Bizarrely one of the murderers quoted the Biblical text, which was originally written to limit injuries, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” Exodus Chapter 21 verse 24. This text was fleshed out by Jesus when he dealt with the subject of retaliation (turn the other cheek etc) in St Matthew Chapter 5 verses 38-42. Jesus immediately followed this teaching with the positive injunction to defeat your enemies by loving them.

He demonstrated this supremely by praying for his enemies’ forgiveness while hanging in agony on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.

From one aspect those standing around the cross did know what they were doing – butchering a rival. But from a Biblical perspective they were fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” Chapter 53.

The Lord of glory had become our sinbearer in order that forgiveness might flow to the repentant sinner. As the poet has put it – “That Thou could save a wretch like me and be the God Thou art, is darkness to my intellect but sunshine to my heart”.