From the Guardian four days ago on the Golders Green stabbings:
Prime minister Keir Starmer said he would visit Golders Green “as soon as possible” after today’s “appalling attack”.
He chaired a Cobra meeting after two people were stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London, in an incident that police are treating as a terrorism offence.
Starmer also said he would meet with criminal justice agencies on Thursday. Speaking to broadcasters, he said: “The Government is taking action in relation to security, cohesion, extremism, but of course it’s our responsibility to coordinate the immediate response here to this appalling attack, to ensure security is in place, to take other measures.”
Cohesion. Is cohesion even possible? Anywhere, ever? Are humans simply incapable of it? Are there always and everywhere differences that prompt and motivate and solidify the formation of tribes and thus rivalries?
The UK had a massive labor shortage after the war, and it recruited people from part of what had been The Empire. I wonder how much, if any, thought was given to the favored religion of that particular bit of The Empire, and how amenable it is to co-existing with other religions.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council have released a joint statement after the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday morning.
The statement said: “We are sickened by yet another terrorist attack on our community, this time targeting two visibly Jewish men on the streets of London. This comes after weeks of arson attacks targeting Jewish premises, and just seven months after two Jews were murdered in Manchester on Yom Kippur. For many in our community, this feels relentless.
“Our thoughts are with the victims, and we pray for their swift recovery. We also thank the police, Shomrim, Hatzola and CST for their swift response.”
The groups then outlined that there were factors which led to this event taking place. “We cannot ignore the context: a wave of antisemitic hatred driven by extremists at home and abroad, including Islamist extremism that motivated the Heaton Park attack, and attempts by the Iranian regime to orchestrate violence against British Jews,” it said.
Is the whole point of religion the creation of ferocious hatred of people outside one’s favored religion? It so often looks that way.
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