Manchester terrorist attack at synagogue shows importance of opposing all forms of prejudice

Yesterday’s terrorist attack, in which two members of the Jewish community were murdered outside a synagogue in Manchester, was an appalling act of violence against innocent people targeted for no other reason than their apparent religious faith. One witness described how the attacker, after driving a car into a group of people, got out and “started stabbing anyone near him".

The thoughtful and eloquent response by Imam Qari Asim, co-chair of the British Muslim Network, from which we quote above, addressed the central issue of such attacks, which is that they are based on prejudice and bigotry that seeks to deny the undeniable truth that we are all individuals.

Jewish and Muslim people living in the UK are in no way responsible for the actions of other Jewish and Muslim people living in the Middle East or anywhere else. They are responsible for their own actions, as are we all.

Yet some people seem willing to blame Jews for what the Israeli government has been doing in Gaza or Muslims for the atrocities carried out by terrorist groups like Isis. This must stop.

History provides many grim examples of where this kind of thinking can lead, with the most appalling being the Nazi Holocaust in which six million people, mostly Jewish, were murdered. The massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 was another and one that showed murderous hatreds are not a thing of the distant past.

This is a time for British Jews, Muslims and all people of good intentions to come together in solidarity against those who would whip up hatred and prejudice against one group or another. If there is one fundamental divide, it is between those who support peace and those, like the terrorist in Manchester, who favour violence.