Hundreds of non-Muslims were at or near the mosque handing flowers to Muslim worshippers as they entered the mosque to pray, according to a BBC report.
The report said the “sea of roses – pink, yellow, white and red – symbolised multicultural London.”
Jews, Christians and people of other faiths gave roses to the Muslims, and these were accepted by them, despite many still recovering from a tragedy just hours earlier.
One man died and 11 people were injured when Darren Osborne, 47, is said to have rammed a van into a crowd of Muslim worshippers about 12:30am on Monday.
Witnesses said the driver shouted “I want to kill all Muslims”, as onlookers pinned him to the ground. An imam and other men are said to have prevented the crowd from killing him. Osborne was later arrested.
The report quoted a Muslim woman Muhubo Barre as saying that Finsbury Park mosque had gone through “difficult times” under the radical cleric, Abu Hamza, from 1997 to 2004, but that tensions with people in the neighbourhood had evaporated in recent years.
One of Hamza’s henchmen, Omar Bakri Mohammed, later went on to head the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, al-Muhajiroun.
According to the report, last weekend, a Jewish woman rabbi, Shulamit Ambalu, had been a guest at the mosque for Iftar, the breaking of the fast after nightfall during Ramadan. It was a multifaith Iftar.
The BBC reporter asked an orthodox Jew, Hananja Fisher, who was at the vigil what had brought him there, and, pointing to his eyes, replied: “My tears. This is all too familiar to us Jews, such attacks.”
Barre’s eldest son, Ayub, 24, was quoted as saying: “I didn’t feel being Muslim in Finsbury Park, in London, was ever an issue. I believe as a community we’ll get through this.”
Meanwhile, The Independent reported that leaders of various religions were joined by Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick at the vigil.
It quoted Mohammed Kozbar, the chairman of the Finsbury Park mosque, as saying: “Yesterday we all experienced a horrific attack on our families, on our freedom, on our dignity. A man, a father of six children, being killed in cold blood and many injured by an extremist, by a terrorist.
“These people, these extremists, their aim is to divide our communities, is to spread hatred, fear and division among our communities.
“We all have harmony in this area, and these people try to divide us, but we tell them that ‘We will not let you do that’.”
The Bishop of Stepney Adrian Newman, who also spoke to the crowd, said: “An attack on one faith is an attack on us all.”
Rabbi Herschel Gluck was quoted by The Independent as saying: “An attack on the Muslim community is an attack on every single citizen in Great Britain, because we are one nation, under one god, living together, working together, cooperating together in this country.”