The Texas synagogue siege is a wake-up call
by Rakib Ehsan, Mail Plus:
Anti-Semitism in our Muslim communities must be confronted now.
The shocking scenes over the weekend at a synagogue in the Texan city Colleyville exposed a problem that has gone largely unaddressed for far too long – anti-Semitism in British Muslim communities.
A man who took four hostages at the Congregation Beth Israel has been identified by the FBI as 44-year-old British Muslim Malik Faisal Akram, who was shot dead after a standoff with police and FBI SWAT teams.
It is understood that Akram, from the Lancastrian town of Blackburn, was not living in the United States and travelled to the country from the UK earlier this month. In the aftermath of the incident, described by US President Joe Biden and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as an act of terror, two teenagers were arrested in Manchester by officers from Counter Terror Policing North West as part of the investigation into the attack.
The data has shown for some time that there are relatively high levels of anti-Semitism in British Muslim communities when compared with the general population. A 2017 report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) showed that when set against the general population, British Muslims in the study were more likely to believe that Jewish people have too much power in Britain (eight per cent versus 27 per cent), exploit the Holocaust for their own purposes (ten per cent versus 25 per cent), and possess feelings of ‘group superiority’ over non-Jews (13 per cent vs 28 per cent).
My own study, based on December 2019 polling, revealed that when compared with British Muslim respondents who are more socially integrated through their friendship groups, lesser-integrated Muslims were more likely to believe that British Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the UK. Similarly, lesser-integrated British Muslim respondents were more likely to think that there is too much Jewish control in the global spheres of politics, banking, media, entertainment and arms production. The survey data suggest that socially segregated British Muslim networks have the potential to act as ideological echo chambers in which anti-Semitic beliefs and anti-Jewish views are reinforced without challenge.
See also:
When are we going to take radical Islam seriously? by Brendan O’Neill, spiked: The terror in Texas confirms that British Islamism has become a global menace.
The Texas synagogue attack won’t be the last, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, UnHerd
The real lesson of the Texas synagogue attack, by Melanie Phillips: Few understand the crucial role of antisemitism in Islamist extremism.
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