The Home Secretary has issued a statement to MPs
Shabana Mahmood speaks in Manchester following the attack(Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
The Home Secretary says MPs must ‘learn from’ the Manchester synagogue attack after the Jewish community had ‘warned this day would come’.
Shabana Mahmood described the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue as an ‘evil act of anti-Semitic terrorism’.
She told the House of Commons this afternoon (October 13) that many British Jews no longer feel safe in the UK – and they had warned such an attack could happen.
“This is a moment of profound national sorrow,” Ms Mahmood told MPs. “An attack on our Jewish community, is an attack on this entire nation.
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“And it calls on us to assert, once more, our determination to tackle extremism, anti-Semitism and hatred wherever it appears.”
Two men – Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66 – died during the attack on October 2, as people had gathered to mark Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby(Image: GMP)
Paying tribute to the pair, Ms Mahmood said ‘their bravery saved countless lives’, as she called on her colleagues to help ensure the attack is not repeated.
She said: “We do know that voices in the Jewish community have long been warning that this day would come, and that Jews who had long felt safe in this country, in their country, now no longer do.
“Now this awful day has come to pass, we must learn from it so that we do everything within our power to ensure it does not happen again.”
The Home Secretary told MPs that the Government’s ‘immediate priority was to enhance security’ in the wake of the Crumpsall attack, with visible patrols outside synagogues and Jewish sites stepped up – but she insisted ‘more must be done’.
Police on Middleton Road following the attack(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“We will provide our Jewish community with the protection they deserve, because no-one should be forced to live a smaller Jewish life in their country because of the events of October 2,” said Ms Mahmood.
The Home Secretary said attacker Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was ‘not referred to the Prevent programme, nor was he known to counter-terrorism policing or the security services’.
She told MPs that investigators believe he was ‘influenced by extreme Islamist ideology’.
Ms Mahmood told MPs that the UK faces a ‘domestic terrorist threat… that is more complex, less predictable and harder to detect than ever before’.
Police speak to members of the Jewish community at the scene(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
She added: “We must not let this attack defeat us, nor forget who we really are, because the real face of this country was not that of the vile monster who conducted this attack, it was those who stood up to him and saved their fellow worshippers and the emergency services who sprinted towards danger to bring the attack to an end.
“And the real face of this country wasn’t those who took to the streets and protested the very next day, but rather those who were horrified by the attack, stood with their Jewish neighbours, and chose the path of solidarity over division.”
Initial findings suggest Mr Daulby died after suffering a gunshot wound, during the police response to Al-Shamie’s attack.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is investigating the response, is treating the officers who responded to the terrorist attack in Manchester as witnesses.
A memorial following the Crumpsall synagogue attack(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“There is no ambiguity around who is responsible for the deaths and injuries that took place on that day,” Ms Mahmood said.
She added officers on the ground ‘acted in a situation where they believed a terrorist was likely to detonate an explosive device’.
Responding to Ms Mahmood’s statement, shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Attacks based on race or religion are totally unacceptable.
“Everyone in this country, in all communities, including the Muslim community, must have the courage to stand up to extremism wherever we see it, because standing by and saying nothing when encountering extremism is complicity.”