Terror on Yom Kippur

On Thursday 2nd October 2025 the UK was shocked by an attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue and also the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur, AKA “The Day of Atonement” is where most Jewish people fast for 25 hours and spend their time with their phones off so as to not be distracted or disturbed and spend most of the day in special Synagogue services. Unfortunately Yom Kippur in 2025 would turn out to be remembered as an especially tragic day for the Jewish community and a very shocking day for the rest of the UK.

35 year old terrorist, Jihad al Shamie, a British citizen of Syrian descent rammed his car into the gates of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue before going on to attack 5 of the Jewish people in what is a highly Jewish based area of Manchester, some of the victims remain in hospital being treated for the Physical wounds they have, though the Mental and Psychological impacts will remain with them for some time to come.

Now antisemitism or as some Jews have called it “Jew Hate” is on the rise again according to some of the Jewish community who have spoken out including a chief Rabbi about having to have heightened security around their Synagogues, schools, workplaces, anywhere that they could be targeted and this having been echoed by the UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer. Now I’d like to make clear that normal, rational, everyday people, British or otherwise have no hate for the Jewish nor any other religions or religious people in general and in fact we respect every religion and their beliefs, frankly many normal people respect each other’s personal beliefs and their opinions.

The individual in this case was not a rational person, nor was he an everyday person, and was shot dead by police due to a suicide vest and a button that police believed detonated the vest which later turned out to be fake but of course police took this vest for the real deal until they found out it wasn’t. The vest was treated as real until the very end and the terrorist was killed by police to put a stop to any further threats posed by him.

The attack on the Synagogue has had as you could expect a massive impact on the Jewish community and the impact is not limited to Manchester where this attack happened.

The attacker in this case caused:

• 3 deaths (including the terrorist)
• 3 injuries (some victims still in hospital)

As can be expected, police have stepped up patrols around Synagogues and Jewish communities right around the UK and the Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has vowed to wrap his arms around the Jewish community, I’d like to mention that Sir Kier Starmers wife Victoria comes from Jewish heritage and the family take part in Jewish customs.

It has since been released that the attacker Jihad al Shamie was on bail for rape when he committed the terrorist incident but was not known to counter terrorism policing, moreover 6 people have since been arrested in relation to the terror attack though the reasons for their arrests have not yet been disclosed by Greater Manchester Police.

Now I want to make clear that the majority of Muslims are normal, everyday people who much like the Jews go about their daily business and also go to the Mosque to worship and do not hate Jews nor anyone else with different religious beliefs and respect all religions, and why am I talking about Muslims specifically? I have spoken to many Muslims who speak about peace and the respect they show for other religions, unfortunately though, the terrorist in this case was Muslim and I want to make it clear that no normal, everyday Muslim would ever act like or commit such a heinous crime against peaceful, innocent civilians.

Most Jews didn’t learn about the attack until leaving their Synagogues after spending their day going through their religious services and were very shocked, stunned and beyond upset to learn that this had happened and fellow Jews had died in this way.

Most Jews made it clear that they knew this attack was coming, with one Jewish man saying and I quote (“After 23 months of anti-Israel hate marches – and Starmer’s backing for Palestine – we Jews knew this was coming”).

With most of the hate seemingly coming from whats going on in Gaza and to the Palestinian people, its clear to me that most Jewish people do not agree with the killings ordered by Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and would rather all of the killings and war in Gaza would end.

The Jewish people in the UK and abroad for the most part are normal everyday people who go about their lives in the same way that everyone does, and the hate in this country does not come from normal everyday people, but a small minority of extremist people with extremist ideologies.

We are proud to welcome the Jewish communities in the UK and do not judge on something of somebody else’s opinions and decisions.

Us normal everyday people welcome you, get on with you and most importantly, we respect you, your religion and your beliefs and we will continue to do so.

I have purposely refused to name Jews in this post because I don’t want to bring anymore threats to them.

I have also had the pleasure of talking to a minister to get the background of how one religion should respect another.

Without annoying too many people. I have been as thorough in this post as I can and any new updates will be added to this post in due course.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the surviving victims and I wish them all a full recovery, and my most deepest and sincerest condolences go to the family and friends of those that were killed in this atrocious incident.