Extremists of all kinds seek to divide us, but the terror attack on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue shows it’s time for the quiet many to stand united against the hate-filled few, writes Ros Wynne Jones
Synagogue attack: Greater Manchester Police statement
Manchester’s Heaton Park became famous this summer, when Oasis chose it for their homecoming reunion. Now its name will be forever associated with heartbreak.
Yesterday morning, Heaton Park Synagogue was the target of a murderous terror attack as families packed in to mark Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. With an added poignancy, many worshippers would not have had their phones on in keeping with traditions, meaning they only learned later of the atrocity.
There are few things extremists hate more than a successful multicultural community – something Manchester has in spades. This is a resilient, bloody-minded city built on historical industrial migration, that speaks 200 languages. It has a long-established Jewish community, the third largest Chinatown in Europe, four international universities, and a mouth-watering Curry Mile.
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The Heaton Park Synagogue is 700 metres from the nearest mosque, as different faiths in the city exist cheek-by-jowl. Manchester’s sandstone and red brick buildings have weathered wars and massacres from Peterloo to the IRA, to the pitiless Abedi brothers who attacked the Manchester Arena.
In the aftermath of the arena attack, the poet Tony Walsh read his poem ‘This is the Place’ to thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square. “And there’s hard times again in these streets of our city / But we won’t take defeat, and we don’t want your pity / Because this a place where we stand strong together.”
These are different, dangerous days. In recent months, extremists of all kinds have sought to divide us. Our tolerant country has become even more fractured and frayed by grievances driven by angry algorithms on social media.
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Anti-Jewish hatred has been on the rise, with Jewish people being wrongly blamed for the actions of the Israeli government – the very definition of antisemitism.
And now, already, online, people are wilfully calling asylum seekers from Muslim countries terror attackers, in the hope of peddling more Islamophobic hatred on the back of the murder of innocent people, and driving more hotel protests.
This is a moment to step back and pause. To stand in solidarity with the Jewish community – the quiet many against the hate-filled few.
And it’s a moment for us all to stand up for the ‘real Britain’ our Prime Minister spoke of just two days ago. The one where most people get along with their neighbours, eat the fish and chips Jewish people brought to Britain, and wear foreign names on their football shirts.
Because this is the place that is the real target of terrorists and extremists. And this is the place where we stand strong together.
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