This foiled conspiracy has since become a key example of the dangers posed by Islamic State-inspired terrorism at home and underscores the ongoing challenges of extremist radicalisation in Western societies.

What Was the Plot?

According to the CST report, the plan was orchestrated by Walid Saadaoui (38) and Amar Hussein (52), both of whom were described by the prosecution as devoted followers of Islamic State (IS) ideology with a “visceral, deep-rooted” hatred of Jewish people. Their goal was to carry out a marauding firearms attack against Jewish civilians in Manchester, using automatic assault rifles to kill and injure as many people as possible.

Had the plot been carried out, it would have likely resulted in hundreds of deaths and serious injuries, creating one of the worst terrorist atrocities on British soil since the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017.

The conspirators selected their target carefully. Manchester is home to a vibrant Jewish community of approximately 28,000 people with thriving synagogues, schools and cultural centres — a community that Saadaoui and Hussein had been reconnoitring prior to their arrest.

Their ambitions extended beyond Jewish civilians alone. The original plan reportedly included attacks at an antisemitism march in Manchester city centre — a public event designed to assert solidarity against hate — followed by further violence in Jewish-dominated suburbs. This approach would have maximised casualties and terror impact.

How the Plot Was Foiled

What ultimately prevented this catastrophe was a covert operation led by Counter Terrorism Policing North West, officially codenamed Operation Catogenic — described in the CST report as the largest and most complex covert counterterrorism investigation ever conducted in the North West of England.

Key to the disruption of the plot was the work of an undercover operative, known only by the codename “Farouk.” Posing as a fellow IS supporter and arms dealer online, Farouk established contact with Saadaoui in December 2023 through jihadist social-media posts. Believing Farouk shared extremist sympathies, Saadaoui soon began communicating detailed plans and ambitions with him.

Over several months, Farouk gained the trust of Saadaoui and Hussein, helping to facilitate weapons acquisition — unknowingly to the extremists, these were inert weapons supplied by police — and to plan the attack logistics. In May 2024, as Saadaoui attempted to complete a hand-off of rifles, ammunition and other gear in a hotel car park in Bolton, authorities moved in and arrested the plotters.

The success of the sting operation prevented a mass casualty event and has been widely praised by law enforcement officials for its bravery and precision.

The Convictions

At Preston Crown Court, after an eleven-week trial that began in October 2025, all three defendants were found guilty on terrorism charges:

• Walid Saadaoui: Life imprisonment with a minimum of 37 years — as the ringleader who planned and coordinated the attack.

• Amar Hussein: Life imprisonment with a minimum of 26 years — for his active participation and assistance in planning.

• Bilel Saadaoui (Walid’s brother): Six years’ imprisonment for failing to report the plot to police.

During sentencing hearings, the court heard that Saadaoui’s radicalisation included hero-worship of European IS figures, particularly those linked to the 2015 Paris terror attacks, and that the conspiracy had been in planning stages for many months, involving extensive target reconnaissance and logistical preparation.

Broader Context: Rising Antisemitic Violence

The CST’s briefing does more than catalogue a single incident; it situates the plot within a broader environment of rising antisemitic hate and violence in the UK. In 2025 alone, anti-Jewish incidents reached record levels, driven in part by global tensions and a fatal antisemitic terrorist attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur in October 2025, which resulted in the deaths of two worshippers.

This atmosphere of fear and vulnerability, coupled with the inspiration extremist ideologies like IS can have on isolated individuals, has heightened security concerns for Jewish communities throughout the UK.

The CST report stresses that security measures at Jewish sites — from synagogues and schools to community events — remain vitally important given the current threat landscape, and that cooperation between community organisations, police, and intelligence agencies is crucial for prevention.

What This Plot Teaches Us

The foiled Manchester Jewish terror plot exposes several critical realities about contemporary terrorism:

1. Home-grown radicalisation persists: Both Saadaoui and Hussein lived in the UK and utilised online networks to reinforce extremist views, showing how individuals can be radicalised far from traditional conflict zones.

2. Undercover operations remain essential: The role of covert policing — including creating believable online personas and monitoring suspect actions — was central to stopping the attack.

3. Antisemitism can intersect with terrorism: While antisemitic hate can take many forms, this case demonstrates how ideologically driven hatred can escalate into planned mass violence.

4. Communities must remain vigilant: The Jewish community’s extensive security network and liaison with police illustrates both vulnerability and resilience.

The post The Manchester Jewish Terror Plot: How a Jihadist Attack Was Foiled and Why It Matters appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

So we decided to view one of his latest videos called, ‘Do Not Sell Your Religion for the World’, (‘Do not sell your deen for dunya’).

In one of his latest videos posted 3 months ago, this is what he said,

“How much will the Yahudh (Jew) pay people to sell off their religion today, (22:18-22:21)”

This statement, along with the others that we have previously reported on should have meant that no mosque accept o rinvite him as a speaker. Yet, the mosque in this video is full of young impressionable minds who have no alternative point of view to the toxic comments of Rashid.

Rashid goes onto abuse the Caliph of the Ahmadi community in the U.K. in the video below. He says:

“….the so-called Ahmadi movement that he is a Khalifa of, according to the US congress…according to Islam he is a kaffir (unbeliever). Anyone who says he (the Khalifa of the global Ahmadi movement – Mirza Masroor Ahmad), is a Muslim, he is a kaffir too”

So much for tolerance, forgiveness and empathy!

Rashid continues to speak and preach in mosques in the United Kingdom to audiences of young men. When will this stop?

The post ‘Sheikh’ Asrar Rashid on Jews – Horrendous Language appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

“I was alarmed at the prevalence of extreme antisemitism in the Channel cases I observed”.

“Such examples I saw in Channel include:

• individuals expressing the intent to kill, assault or harm Jewish people or a particular Jewish individual
• threats to burn, desecrate or blow up a Synagogue
• the conduct of hostile reconnaissance on local Synagogues
• claiming religious or political justification for the murder of Jewish people • refusing consent to be situated in a city with Jewish people
• demonstrating an obsession with Jews • adherence to extreme antisemitic conspiracies” – Sir William Shawcross, (Prevent Review, Feb 2023)

These are the striking words of Sir William Shawcross in the Prevent Review of the community counter-extremism programme.

Muslims Against Antisemitism (MAAS) was created to inform and work with British Muslim communities in raising their awareness of antisemitism and its discourse; this work also includes countering and challenging antisemitic discourse from those within parts of Muslim communities, and in particular, Islamist groups who seek to divide British Muslim and Jewish communities.

MAAS fully endorses the findings and the opinions of the Sir William Shawcross and our work has demonstrated an ongoing risk to Jewish communities from Islamist antisemitism. This risk has developed and consolidated itself on social media and in the ‘real world’ as cases of Islamist antisemitism make up about a quarter of antisemitic attacks annually reported to the Community Security Trust (CST), the national antisemitism monitoring body. This indicates a basal level of Islamist antisemitism that remain continually high.

MAAS is clear that Islamism, does not and should be the lens through which all British Muslim communities are viewed and the vast majority of Muslims are anti-Islamists and they seek to develop better relations with their neighbours, faith and non-faith communities.

We call on the Government to do more work on tackling Islamist antisemitism and corresponding groups who seek to agitate and affect the social fabric of our society.

As British Muslims, we find it unacceptable that our Jewish brothers and sisters are targeted by Islamist antisemitism. We will continue to challenge it wherever we come across it and in whichever guises it takes.

Signatories: Ghanem Nuseibeh (Chair),
Fiyaz Mughal OBE (Founder),
Haras Rafiq (Trustee),
Elizabeth Arif-Fear (Trustee),
Wasiq Wasiq (Trustee),
Rakib Ehsan (Patron),
Noor Dahri (Patron)

The post Muslims Against Antisemitism Acknowledges the Ongoing Risk from Islamist Antisemitism appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

The picture is heart-breaking and shows the love of a mother for her now deceased young son.

However, what AbuHilalal did, was to use an image that also placed a picture of what is assumed to be Mary, holding the body of Christ. It contained the text – “After 2,000 years and its the same killer”.

AbuHilalah has now deleted the tweet. However, what cannot be denied is the antisemitism within the graphic that is highlighted below and which was also raised by Adam Milstein, as being blatantly antisemitic in nature.

This also demonstrates the pernicious nature of antisemitism online and how graphics are produced and circulated and which at their core, seek to marginalise, dehumanise and spread intolerance against Jewish communities.

AbuHilalah calls himself a columnist and journalist on his Twitter account. You would think that he might be aware of the strong antisemitic resonances in the graphic below, however, this failed to be the case. With over 607,000 Twitter followers, you could say that antisemitism had already percolated through the platform within hours that his tweet was up on his account, given the transient nature of the platform.

We hope that journalists like AbuHilalah learn from this experience and realise that antisemitism is viral by nature and that it mutates in different forms. We also hope that he realises that groups like Muslims Against Antisemitism will not stand idly by and allow such online tweets to go unchallenged.

Al Jazeera isn’t even trying to hide their antisemitism anymore: pic.twitter.com/KmSP6yy0NB

— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) August 13, 2022

The post Former Managing Director of Al-Jazeera Circulates Antisemitic Material appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

The sad fact is that Sheikh Asrar Rashid, incorporates a politicised and aggressive narrative within his religious edicts. Whilst religious leaders have sometimes historically strayed into political speech, we have to highlight the deeply corrosive speech that Asrar Rashid gave on the 13th of June 2021, at a lecture entitled ‘Al-Aqsa and the future of Islam and ‘Free Palestine’.

This is the You Tube video: https://youtu.be/vdQ9fkmPRKM.

We have listed excerpts of the video below highlighting some of the comments by Asrar Rashid:

1:13 mins: “Remember in Jerusalem, the Olive Tree is the tree of the Palestinians and the Boxthorn tree is the tree of the Jews. So the Olive tree has deep roots and it gives shade and it gives olives and oil – benefit. The boxthorn tree was known as the tree of the Jews even in the time of the messenger of Allah, (Muhammad). It also has deep roots but it is just thorns and they (Jews) preferred this tree over the date and olive trees. But the olive tree is known as the tree of the Palestinians and the Israeli occupying forces are known to uproot the trees of the Palestinians. So even planting an olive tree in Palestine is an act of Jihad.”

“And retaking the land forcefully, by force, is an act of Jihad. That if a Muslim goes there and he takes the land, if this Jacob, this Jew from America, can go and claim a house of a Muslim family in Sheikh Jarrah, then every Muslim in the world has a right to go back to Palestine and forcefully take the house of the settlers. I mean they belong to Muslims.”

1:18:43: “Today some people think that the Arabs were treacherous to the Ottoman Caliphate. This is incorrect. There were two groups from amongst the Arabs who were treacherous. Who were the two groups? One was the Sharif of Mecca who was treacherous and from his progeny is the Jordanian Royal Family. And the second was the Al-Saud who govern the Arabian peninsular today. But David Lloyd George from the British Cabinet at the time mentioned two things if you read the historical accounts, they mention two things. One, they were unable to communicate because remember, you have ‘uncle toms’ everywhere in India and Pakistan, otherwise how was a small nation like Britain able to govern a nation of millions.”

“You still have these Uncle Toms. You have this Uncle Tom who goes to Israel – ‘occupied Palestine’ and lays down flowers at the graves of Holocaust victims, these people will never recite Al-Fatiha for Hamas fighters for instance. Yes, they will deem them or designate them as terrorists. Which is fine, you want to deem them as terrorists, that is your opinion, but they will recite their Al-Fatiha for those people who died in the Holocaust. Of course, Holocaust victims were innocent people, they were innocent people, but the fact that you go under the Israeli occupation and go to that place and ignore the Palestinian cause and the Muslim cause of emancipating the city of Jerusalem, and then when you do release a statement regarding what is happening, your statement is neither here nor there. The statement is not unequivocal. So we still have these Uncle Toms….”

1:24.00: “This is why the Caliphate will descend on the city of Jerusalem and this is the future of Al-Islam. It is interlinked and intertwined with the future of Jerusalem. So even when Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as the capital of the occupied state of Palestine, Muslims as a whole and Muslim Ulema as a body should declare and must declare the city of Jerusalem as the future of the Islamic Caliphate. This is an important action.”

The statements made by this preacher are abhorrent, particularly suggesting that Muslims who visit places of the Holocaust in Israel are ‘Uncle Toms’. The use of force to take material items from people in Israel is also unacceptable. Everyone has the right to challenge political ideology and we in Muslims Against Antisemitism believe that any form of racism, prejudice or intolerance, whether directed at Israelis of Arab or Jewish heritage, should be roundly condemned. However, the use of force is not acceptable.

We believe that Asrar Rashid should answer for these statements. His words will have an impact as a religious leader and can influence minds.

Read more: Growing antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in Europe is a wake up call for us all

The post Sheikh Asrar Rashid’s Politicised & Aggressive Narrative Is Abhorrent appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

              (Daniel Netz)

At a time when Jews were being held hostage in the US, a Jewish follower on my Facebook, Daniel Netz, asked: “Are we Jews forever doomed to live in fear?”

This not only brought tears to my eyes, but I was also left speechless as I considered the intense pain and fear that Daniel felt for his community.

His fear is not irrational, and I am sure he witnessed many antisemitic incidents in his life.

Jews have remained and still are, a soft target for Islamists in the West because they consider Jews a “mastermind” behind all the problems Muslims have faced over the decades. Almost all of the key leaders from major Islamist terrorist organisations have delivered speeches against the Jewish community as well as Israel. Because they cannot fight Israel directly, these so-called ‘leaders’ promote revenge on local Jewish communities by inciting against them in their places of worship, shops, streets and transports, etc.

Let us not forget the toxic hate against Jews spewed out by Osama Bin laden when he said: “The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed alone; their sons are not orphaned alone.”

This violent Islamist mindset translates to hurting Jewish communities so that Israel should ultimately feel the pain. In other words, the ultimate target for violent Islamist groups are Jewish communities and inflicting as much horror and pain on them is one way of attacking Israel. This violent antisemitism runs throughout their thinking, their Islamist ideology and their way of seeing the world.

“The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes…..The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.”

(Osama Bin laden, Head of Al-Qaeda)

Jihadist leaders believe that Jews are at fault for the taking up of arms against them. Intertwined within this thinking is a core belief that ‘Islam is under threat’ and that the main protagonists are Israel and Jews. This conspiratorial thinking is no different to the ideology that pervades far right groups and shows a virtual mirror image in thinking.

Depressingly, many Muslims across the globe buy into this thinking as they read online material that promotes such messages, dressed up as Islamic thought or interpretations. Let us therefore not forget that such ideology creates the mood music that people like Iraq’s one time Al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, wanted to enhance in his murderous drives.

“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque…”

(Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda leader)

The ideology of antisemitism is key tool of Islamists and at one point, nationalists, to generate hate and violence against Jews, so that it can be used to whip up hatred against Israel. Terrorist attacks against Jews, and the expulsion of Jews in Muslim majority Arab countries have all been examples of this.

Over the course of 2021, there have been a number of violent antisemitic attacks in England, including:

• On the 16^th of May, police arrested four men in connection with a video appearing to show antisemitic abuse being shouted from a car in north London.
• On the 5^th of July, a Jewish man was subjected to antisemitic abuse twice in an hour in central London, including physical threats, because of his appearance.
• On the 4^th of September, a man (Abdullah Qureshi) was charged in connection with a string of antisemitic attacks against a Jewish grandfather in London.
• On the 1^st of December, a bus full of Jewish passengers, many of them children and celebrating the festival of Hanukkah, were targeted by a group of “Middle Eastern men” who attacked their vehicle while shouting abuse and spitting at them.
• On the 24^th of Dec, a man was injured in an antisemitic attack and received death threats in London during Hanukkah.

Furthermore, according to the Community Security Trust, over 1,300 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the United Kingdom over the first six months of 2021, a 49 percent increase over the same period last year.

And now, in the beginning of 2022, we witnessed another harrowing ordeal after a British man who travelled to Texas to free an Al-Qaeda convicted Antisemitic terrorist, Afia Siddiqui. After a ten hour-long standoff, he was shot by law enforcement agents after the Jewish hostages escaped.

Islamists certainly do not have a monopoly on antisemitic violence and, moreover, Islam is not a historical home to antisemitism. Under the Islamic Caliphate in Spain, Al-Andalus, the Jewish-Muslim community experienced a “Golden Age” of coexistence after Jews sought refuge from European persecution. Jews mingled freely and comfortably with Muslims and were immersed in Arabic Islamic culture including the language, poetry, philosophy, science, medicine and the study of Scripture.

It is important to highlight three Quranic verses in which Allah has not only protected the religious rights of the People of the Book, but also commanded Muslims to eat with them and make close relations (marriages) with Jews and Christians.

Religious rights and protection: “Had Allah not been repelling some people by means of some others, the monasteries, the churches, the synagogues and the mosques where Allah’s name is abundantly recited would have been demolished. Allah will definitely help those who help Him (by defending the religion prescribed by Him.) Surely Allah is Powerful, Mighty.” (Quran: 40:22)

Muslims are also permitted to eat good food of the people of Book, including Jewish meat: “This day [all] good food has been made lawful, and the food of those who give the scripture (Jews and Christians) is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them” (Quran: 5:5)

Intermarriage is permissible among the People of the Book: “And [lawful in marriage are] chaste women from among the believers (Muslims) and chaste women from among those who were given the Scripture (Jews and Christians) before you…” (Quran: 5:5)

If Jews were our enemy, Allah would not have commanded us to eat, marry and have close ties with Jews.

As a Muslim I find all hateful attitudes abhorrent. All violence against non-Muslims (particularly Jews) not only hurts innocent souls but also defames Islam. Moreover, militant Islamists who violently attack communities of other faiths are not only against progressive notions like human rights, they are also against the very principles of the Quran.

Noor Dahri is a Patron of Muslims Against Antisemitism and an executive director of Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism (ITCT), a UK based think tank. His opinions can be viewed at @dahrinoor2.

Read More: Even After the Beth Israel Terrorist Attack, Few Voices Tackle Islamist Extremism

The post The scourge of Islamist Antisemitism appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

British Islamist twitter feeds are playing out sympathy for the convicted extremist Aafia Siddiqui, rather than focusing on the antisemitic hostage taking of four people at the Beth Israel synagogue in Texas. This alone demonstrates the callous, political and highly inflammatory nature of Islamists.

When Aafia Siddiqui was tried in the U.S. in 2010, her outbursts were full of antisemitism, something that Islamists fail to mention in their perverse sympathies with her. During her trial Siddiqui demanded that Jews be excluded from the jury trial in New York.

Siddiqui’s antisemitism was more than just an outburst. It was systemic and encompassed a mindset that thought of Jews as being part of a global elite that was out to get Muslims and people like her. In an outburst in federal court in Manhattan in 2010 she called for jurors to undergo genetic testing saying, “If they have a Zionist or Israeli background….they are all mad at me”. She went onto say that, “I have a feeling everyone here is them [sic] – subject to genetic testing. They should be excluded if you want to be fair”, she told the judge.

Siddiqui was educated in the United States and had a PhD from Brandeis University. She married an Al-Qaeda operative, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, (known as Ammar al-Balluchi), who was a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks and a cousin of Ramzi Yousef, who was convicted of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.

Muslims Against Antisemitism has consistently spoken out against Islamist antisemitism, yet even after the latest antisemitic hostage taking attack, few fellow British Muslims are willing to speak out. Yet, unless our fellow co-religionists speak out, Islamist hate will be seen as being normalised in parts of the community, instead of a viral toxin that needs to be eradicated.

Islam teaches us to protect life. At the core of Islam, is a belief in the functional nature of life and thereby the sanctity of life itself. By allowing Islamists to spread their hate, we also debase the value of life, our care for others and Islam itself.

Read More: We Muslims Need to Talk About Muslim Antisemitism

The post Even After the Beth Israel Terrorist Attack Few Voices Tackle Islamism Within appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

Whilst the vast majority of British Muslims abhor the brutality and medieval nature of the Taliban, there are some who believe that the Taliban encompass a form of ‘liberation army’ that has freed Afghans from some form of colonial yoke. Not only is this laughable, it is dangerous sentiment that glosses over the acts of this murderous group that was involved in the killings of British soldiers in places like Helmand.

Anyone supporting or hinting towards support for the Taliban, will no doubt harbour some form of antisemitic sentiment or antisemitic conspiracy theories. You simply cannot support such a brutal regime which has already made clear that it will not engage with Israel, and then harbour thoughts that antisemitism is a bad thing. The two do not go together, however much some may try and undertake a form of mental gymnastics to do so. 

The sad reality is that Islamist extremist groups like the Taliban, will depressingly, inspire young men seeking some form of purpose and identity and who hold a set of grievances against the wider liberal culture of this country. It does not even have to be this deep and it could be people seeking some form of purpose and thrill, allied to the consumption of extremist antisemitic material which seeks to build up their ego through acts of violence against perceived enemies.

Such a scenario therefore does not bode well for the threat of attacks against synagogues and places of Jewish culture and life. The sad fact is that Islamist groups seem to have a fixation on Jewish communities and their threads of conspiracy theories, allied to hatred against Jews, foolishly places them as ‘victims’ and Jews as the ‘all powerful aggressors’. By any definition, it is classical antisemitism at work.

Which is why we at Muslims Against Antisemitism, believe that whilst Afghanistan may be 3,500 miles away, it is imperative that we all maintain support and vigilance for our Jewish brothers and sisters at this time. There is a heightened risk at this time and which should rouse communities to work together to stand and act in solidarity with Britain’s Jewish communities.

Which is why we say that if you come across any material that is targeted antisemitism or if you see or hear about threats against British Jewish communities, please do call 101 and report them in. You can also report incidents through to the Community Security Trust, also know as the CST. You can report here through their web-site.

Read more: We Muslims Need to Talk About Muslim Antisemitism

The post The Rise of the Taliban Inspires Islamists. In Doing So, It Raises Risks for Jewish Communities appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

“A majority of teachers in England do no not know when the Holocaust began and lack the knowledge to challenge myths about it, according to new research by University College London’s Centre for Holocaust Education.”

Worst still, most of the teachers could not tell when or where the Holocaust began and had little idea about the proportions of the German population that were Jewish.

The survey also found that about one in five of those with recent teaching experience on the Holocaust had had no specialist training.

These findings are worrying because such issues could lead to errors in basic information being provided to students that takes away from the experiences of Holocaust survivors and from the full scale impact of the horrors of this modern day genocide.

Furthermore, we are seeing a form of Holocaust revisionism taking place online and the last thing that is needed, is that any errors add to the revisionism that is being pushed by antisemites.

Commenting on this, Ghanem Nuseibeh – the Chair of Muslims Against Antisemitism – said:

“These findings from the (UCL) Centre for Holocaust Education are deeply troubling. They demonstrate the fact that people need consistent training and ongoing support in providing accurate and empathic materials about the plight of Jewish communities in the Holocaust. It is clear that where there are gaps, people try to improvise and this is where errors can come in and where Holocaust revisionists can attempt to use others to legitimise their antisemitism”.

The post Teachers Not Knowing When the Holocaust Started Is Deeply Worrying appeared first on Muslims Against Antisemitism.

Antisemitism came to the public consciousness no greater than when the Labour Party, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, failed the Jewish community. So spectacular was this failure, that it led the Party to be investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). To put this into context, the only other party to gain the EHRC’s attention and therefore be subjected to an investigation was the British National Party (BNP) widely accepted as a racist Party.

Could this have been prevented? Yes. Was it prevented? No. Is this the only example of the Jewish community being let down? No. So why are Jews being let down?

The thesis underlying the book Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel is that there is a hierarchy of racism. That some racisms are more equal than others. That whilst other ethnic minorities can suffer from it, so too can Jews. But the significance between racism towards Jews and other ethnic minorities is starkly different. It is Jews that are the losers when it comes to highlighting and tackling the racism.

Jews are seen as white and privileged, therefore the impact of racism against them is less than that of other ethnic minorities. Jews hold a double status. For example, they are seen as white by progressives and not white by white supremacists. Jews therefore are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If many Jews felt politically homeless because of Jeremy Corbyn, then antisemitism has also made them ethnically homeless when it comes to who they are.

Baddiel calls this “double racism”. The idea that – for example – Jews are rich and black people are poor. Therefore, Jews cannot be victims, but black people can. There is an original sin analogy somewhere here. That you are either born powerful, or born weak and the two are immutable characteristic assigned to each ethnic minority as if it is essential to their being and identity. This is a bigotry of low expectations towards black people and a complete erasure of the struggles and discrimination faced by Jews. Baddiel advances this argument further:

“The problem is that Jews occupy a socio-cultural grey area. Jews, although marginal, are not thought of as marginalised.”

“One’s Jewishness, just like one’s skin colour, is an accident of birth, and as far as the racists are concerned – and they, sadly, are the people that matter as far as racism goes – you can never lose either.”

Jews have been let down by progressives. There is no victory, or perhaps not even any value is standing up for the Jew. So much so that the double standards of calling out Piers Morgan for his apparent mistreatment of Meghan Markle is seen as more worthy, than perhaps calling out the former Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn. Baddiel goes onto explain:

“It is the prerogative of those on the receiving end of any specific racism to define that racism. They get to say what is and what isn’t racism and Piers Morgan does not.”

So why isn’t this the case for Jews? The book explains this is more detail.

The holocaust is an inconvenience for some of these progressives. Whilst antisemitism predates WW2, the fact that Jews suffered horrendously as a result of it, leaves these progressives with nowhere to turn other than to admit that it was the worse kind of antisemitism to have ever taken place. It seems like this is a bitter pill to swallow, a truth they wish was false. Because all that matters to them is, minorities do not and should not include Jews. Progressives are the gatekeepers of who qualifies as an ethnic minority. This is why the concept of whataboutery is employed and is then used against Jews, particularly in the case of the Palestinians.

What 9/11 is for Muslims, the actions of Israel are for Jews. There is an expectation that Jews must condemn the actions – whether justified or not – of Israel when it seen as the aggressor against Palestinians. Baddiel points out that invoking the actions of Israel when talking to Jews is a form of antisemitism. That holding all Jews to account, or for them to have a view on the actions of Israel is no different to holding all Muslims to account when terrorist acts are perpetrated by Islamist extremists.

David Baddiel provides further examples of how Jews are let down and he goes into much more detail than this review will allow me to write. Jews Don’t Count is an excellent read. It is accessible, funny and honest. It seeks to bring non-Jews into the Jewish world where aggressions against them occur every day, yet are either dismissed or ignored. It highlights a blind spot that progressives fail to see in themselves. It seeks to ensure that their plight does not matter anymore than any other ethnic minority, just that when they are attacked, they are treated in the same way.

If Jews don’t count then David Baddiel has provided the reader with a persuasive case of why they should count. The fact that I am even concluding this, just goes to show why this book is needed and how we, the general public, need to take a hard look at ourselves when an ethnic minority is being let down. Never again must mean never again.

Read more: You can stand firmly against antisemitism and for Palestinian rights….

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