by David Rose, UnHerd
Since he is now dead, untangling what went through Jihad Al-Shamie’s mind when he decided to attack Jews outside a Manchester synagogue yesterday is no longer possible. As Jewish community leaders reached out to his victims, they voiced anger at officialdom’s failure over many years to deal effectively with those preaching antisemitic hate, especially from the pulpits of mosques. Once described by the Muslim counter-extremist Quilliam Foundation as “the mood music to which suicide bombers dance”, such sermons, they said, were likely a significant factor.
Dave Rich, policy director of the Community Security Trust, the charity that provides physical protection for Jews across Britain, told me the “comfort and support” offered by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other senior political figures was welcome. “But it’s not enough,” he said. “There has to be hard action. When it comes to antisemitic extremism, too many blind eyes have been turned for too long.”
In some cases, mosques that have featured extremist preachers, often posting their sermons on YouTube, have been courted by local and national political leaders. The Abdullah Quilliam Society in Liverpool is one example. In October 2023, two weeks after the Hamas attack on Israel, imam Haroon Hanif urged its worshippers to “wage war for Allah”, not to be “weak about jihad”, and to follow Allah’s wish to “wipe out disbelievers”. As for Jews, they should not be seen as victims of the atrocities but instead as perpetrators of genocide. Allah would eventually get rocks to talk in order to betray where they might be hiding.
The counter-extremism expert who posts on X as “Habibi” publicised this at the time, eventually prompting the Charity Commission to issue a formal warning in June 2025. It said the sermon was “inflammatory and divisive”. Yet months after Hanif’s sermon, Attorney General Richard Hermer paid a visit, saying the mosque’s work was “inspiring”. In March, its head imam Adam Kelwick was a guest of Starmer’s in Downing Street.