Yesterday came news of a horrendous and violent attack here in Manchester. The Heaton Park Synagogue, the target for a cowardly and appalling incident featuring a knife, a possible bomb, and a car driven into the premises. It makes me feel physically sick.
As the fog of confusion lifted somewhat, it became clear that this was a cowardly, hideous, terrorist, antisemitic attack carried out by an Islamist. A man who was shot dead within seven short minutes, by some accounts, of launching his attack, thanks to the excellent work of local armed police.
Syrian-born murderer
Fuzzy videos, and stills taken from these, showed a man, named by Greater Manchester Police as 35-year-old Jihad al Shamie, a Syrian born murderer, carrying out the attack. It began at 0931 and ended at 0938.
Apart from the murder of two completely innocent people, the serious injury of three others, this attack has stabbed a knife deep into the heart of Jewish and Islamic communities.
Attacks like this are designed to remove any possibility of co-existence between different faiths.
They are constructed in the wicked minds of evil men like al Shamie to remove any possibility that communities can live in the same geographical space, thereby requiring physical walls and boundaries, militias and men with guns, as found in parts of the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Lebanon. Take your pick.
The horrible irony is that the terrorist is joined in this by other extremists, many of whom made their views known in short order yesterday. More on them later.
The oldest hatred
Why did he do it? Hatred. Antisemitism. A desire to kill Jews. The oldest hatred. The ideology that led to the Holocaust.
And let us be clear; this is not ‘anti-Zionism’. He targetted a Jewish congregation on a Jewish holy day. His victims became his victims because they were Jews. No other reason.
You may speak of Gaza, of Palestine, of events in the Middle East as some sort of justification. But there is no justification. In any case, al-Shamie deliberately intended to make everything worse, and nothing better. He was happy to have blood on his hands.
Let us be clear; this is not ‘anti-Zionism’. He targetted a Jewish congregation on a Jewish holy day. His victims became his victims because they were Jews. No other reason
Beyond these obvious facts, his is a perverted and horrible understanding, if that’s the word, of Islam. It’s depressing to have to quote, once again, the Quran in these situations, but we do know our faith:
“…Whoever takes a life, it will be as if they killed all of humanity, and whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity. (Surah al Ma’idah. 5:32).
This is absolutely fundamental to Islam and there are many Quranic verses and Hadith telling us the same thing.
There are, it’s true, men who misquote, misuse and mislead where Islamic teachings are concerned. Their perversion of a beautiful faith is well known, and perhaps we don’t need to go over this again here.
Suffice to say, that these modern day Jihadis, with their literalist, bigoted, backward “understanding” of Islam, provided by some crazy Wahhabi/Salafist Sheikh, are to Islam what the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and Lord Resistance Army are to Christianity, or what some of the lunatics within Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are to Judaism.
Whoever takes a life, it will be as if they killed all of humanity, and whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity
Surah al Ma’idah. 5:32
Speaking of Aryan Nations, Britain’s equally low neo-nazis were rubbing their hands in delight as al-Shamie’s knife struck his victims.
Those of us who watch these “white Jihadi” wannabes know one thing, above all; that on the far right, where ideas have permeated into mainstream political memes and dialogue, largely by social media, the essential dividing line is whether you hate Jews or Muslims the most.
This is the yardstick by which we can judge and understand them. Everything else is secondary.
Notorious antisemite
First out of the blocks was Mark Collett, leader of Patriotic Alternative and one of Britain’s most notorious antisemites. Of the attacks he said, “White girls slaughtered. Not terrorism. An attack on a synagogue: definitely terrorism. It’s pretty obvious to see who are the second class citizens.”
Later, Collett went even further when he posted, to his Telegram channel, “We now have plod “working closely with Jewish security guards at the synagogues.” As well all know any White security guards protecting white communities would be “Strictly Forbidden.”
Doubling down on this offensive, antisemitic filth, was Collett’s PA deputy, Laura Melia (Towler):
“When Jews are killed: We’re sending additional Police and we’ll do everything to protect you. When English kids are killed: Don’t look back in anger.”
This is deliberately calculated to cause even greater offence, to insult the memories of those killed yesterday, to pour fuel on the fire and to play to their international audience of neo-nazis in Europe, the USA and Australia.
The most open neo-nazi group in the UK, British Movement, were so impressed by Melia/Towler that they simply forwarded her comments to their own supporters.
Trying to appear somehow relevant, we had a typically overblown video of nonsense from Britain First co-leader Ashlea Simon, where she pretended that, since the attack, she’d been “inundated with messages from genuinely concerned mums on What’sApp groups.”
Despite the fact that al-Shamie was dead, Simon tried to pour yet more fuel on the fire by suggesting that people might still be in danger and should collect their kids from school.
Implicitly undermining local authorities and the police, Simon was shamelessly seeking to weaponise fear.
There was one terrorist. He was dead by 0938.
The anti-Muslim side
Simon is very much on the anti-Muslim side of things. In this, she is joined by the vile StephenYaxley-Lennon, aka “Tommy Robinson” who was equally quick off the mark:
“Make no bones about it, the suspected Islamic terror attack on peaceful Jewish at their place of worship in Manchester is the consequence of Keir Starmer’s regime allowing hate marches to take to our streets following the October 7th massacre. After all that vile hatred, Starmer publicly gives in to them. Blood on your hands!”
This from a man who surrounds himself with violent criminals, thugs, grifters, and wannabe terrorists who prefer to attack migrant hotels and set them on fire.
Remember his close mate Danny Tommo’s call after the Southport killings last year that “Every city must go up”?
Not to mention the obvious fact that Keir Starmer’s wife is a practicing Jew and visits synagogues regularly. And Starmer himself, just this week, has made his views on people like ‘Robinson’ very well known.
Manchester has yet to fully recover from the Arena Bombing in May 2017. Before that there was a devastating IRA bomb in 1996. Manchester may be “used to” terrorism but the wounds run deep.
New wounds were opened up today. And that was the intention of the man responsible.
For us, in the Muslim community, our views were made crystal clear by a statement released by Khizra mosque in nearby Cheetham Hill.
Khizra is a large mainstream mosque and I have worshipped there. Its community outreach is second to none, its work respected and well-known. I don’t know anybody there who would agree with what yesterday’s terrorist has done. We live side by side with people of all faiths and none.
Today, even the terrorists own family disowned him. They issued a statement saying:
“The news from Manchester regarding the terrorist attack targeting a Jewish synagogue has been a profound shock to us.
“The Al Shamie family in the UK and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians.
“We fully distance ourselves from this attack and express our deep shock and sorrow over what has happened.”
Cheetham Hill, now a heavily populated Muslim area, used to be the centre of Manchester’s Jewish community. Indeed, the famous Manchester Jewish Museum is situated there, on the main road through the area.
And we share many things in common with Judaism from a religious point of view. Muslims know this. In the last 30 to 40 years, many within the local Jewish community have moved a little further north, towards Heaton Park and Prestwich.
Not popular
But, and it is probably not popular to say this, there are some within the wider Muslim community who do not like Jews. They blame them, wrongly, for what is happening in the Middle East.
But Zionism is a non-religious ideology, and has nothing to do with Judaism per se. Where issues like Palestine are concerned, people of all faiths and none will be found supporting the cause.
Equally, there are numerous Jewish people who support the Palestine cause, from the liberal to the most Orthodox. I think we should bear this in mind and try, try, to see disagreements as political not religious.
After all, like it or not, we all seek to worship the same God, to connect with the Divine. And yes, I know this is all very contentious but I am mindful of the fact that we need to try and seek light, and not generate heat, especially now.
Greater strain
The attack today was further evidence that the centre of politics and community, here and elsewhere, is under greater strain than ever.
Somehow, and the sooner the better, we are going to have to find a way to navigate and negotiate the many and varied difficulties we face; disastrous foreign policy, lines drawn on a map, increasing economic pressures with the growing gap between rich and poor, the rise of Reform UK, the weaponising of deeply held prejudices against faith communities who sound and look a little different to a supposed “norm.”
This is the poisonous brew against which we now have to operate.
It is time to dump the extremists, the men of violence. It’s time to see the good in everyone, to witness to our simple humanity…
