Jewish group condemns limp reaction to Muslim stabbing attack

The Jewish Voice for Liberation (JVL) group has issued a statement of solidarity with British Muslims after the white hate knife attack on Muslims in Edinburgh. At the same time, it has condemned the gross disparity in the mealy-mouthed reaction of the British political and media establishment to the attack. In contrast, this reaction differs from the recent attack on two Jewish men. Furthermore, the reaction also differs from the reaction to an almost-unmentioned Muslim man.

JVL statement

No ‘COBRA’ meeting, no ministerial visits, no special policing arrangements or funding. JVL concludes that the government and media value Muslim lives far less than those of Jews — at least those who support Israel. Indeed, the attack arises out of the establishment’s decades-long Islamophobia. Read the full statement below:

JVL stands in solidarity with the direct victims of the Islamophobic knife attack in Edinburgh on Friday 19th June. We stand in solidarity with the Muslim community in Edinburgh and throughout the UK for whom this particularly ghastly attack is another of far too many, leading to deep fears.

We acknowledge that this is rightly being condemned as terrorism but must note with anger the different ways that attacks on Jewish people and Muslim people are treated. For example, unlike in response to the Golders Green stabbings, we note that no COBRA meeting has been called and no government Minister has visited the community in Edinburgh over the weekend. Furthermore, we are told that what happened in Golders Green was a ‘stain upon the nation’ and the consequence of Gaza demonstrations. Edinburgh, like those dreadful stabbings of two Jewish men, was the action of a lone individual but no connections with the Unite the Kingdom marches or the rhetoric we hear from Nigel Farage and many others in Reform nor have they been blamed for this outrage.

Some were not even ready to label the attack as Islamophobic; while Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she was horrified by the attacks, she stated that “they appeared “to be motivated by anti-Muslim hatred“. Scottish Government’s Justice Secretary Neil Gray made similar comments. Newspaper headlines such as this from the Independent: Five injured in suspected ‘anti-Muslim’ attacks in Edinburgh as police charge man and this from The MIrror Terror probe as ‘Edinburgh knifeman’ goes on ‘anti-Muslim rampage’ injuring five placed quotation marks around the words anti-Muslim, which are not present when antisemitism is suspected of being the motive. Furthermore, the attacks on Jews in Golders Green made headline news for several days, which is not what we have seen with the attacks on Muslims in Edinburgh.

We stand with the Muslim groups and others who blame Edinburgh attacks on ‘poisonous narrative’ and urge serious action to be taken to address this. The context that enables Islamophobia must be addressed as well as speedy and appropriate responses to individual attacks.

No comparison

Unlike the Golders Green attacks, which were perpetrated by a mentally ill man who had just stabbed a Muslim, there is no question about the Islamophobic nature of the Edinburgh attacks. The would-be killer, even as he was restrained and arrested, shouted foul anti-Muslim hate parroted directly from politicians and far-right white supremacists.

Featured image via the JVL