Muslims don’t count – well not as much as Jews do.
JVL Statement on the Islamophobic Attack in Edinburgh
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.
This is very much what needs to be said – and repeated. The primacy given to Jews’ concerns and fears in contrast to that of Muslims is surely a blatant example of institutionalised marginalisation of Muslim communities. Excellent that JVL makes manifest its solidarity with Muslims. But where is the Jewish Establishment- BoD, Chief Rabbi (chief rabbi only of a limited proportion of UK Jews), the CST – in all this? Probably concocting a complaint at seeing a Palestinian flag badge.
Isn’t it strange how legacy media have barely given the value it deserves. If this was aimed at jews they would have been all over it.
We haven’t come that, far when race is still a monster of a problem and being muslim means you have breadcrumbs when it comes to tackling semitic islamaphobia! The fact its been fed to the public like novacaine they breed terrorism gives you an idea how poor Islam is understood. They are a semitic people.
Who lobbies the media? Who has developed AI techniques to brain feed false information to the wider public like popping candy? The real terrorists are desperately trying to control the narrative and public.
Yup, muslims and other communites are not valued and as long as that is the status quo there will be solidarity and resistance against all forms of colonial racism and imperialism.
Power to the People!
The Edinburgh attacks show how the British Broadcast Media is operating two tier reporting. Here CfMM has crunched the numbers and shown this to clearly be the case in our latest X analysis of British broadcast channels. Please share widely. https://x.com/cfmmuk/status/2069018478997098694