Terror and Racism in Liverpool

I suppose we could make a grim joke about Emad Al Swealmeen, the supposed Islamist terrorist who died when his bomb exploded inside a taxi outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on November 14th. We could describe him as a failed suicide bomber who blew up in anger when asked to pay his taxi fare, or some such thing. Fortunately, for most people, the reaction has been highly responsible, with attention focussing upon the serious aspects of this incident. For a few people, it has given them an opportunity to incite racism, but let's look at that later.

For this incident was no joke. Whatever his level of competence (or incompetence) Swealmeen meant serious, lethal business, even though there is still some uncertainty about his target. The police theory is that he was headed to Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, where he would have joined the Remembrance Sunday congregation and detonated the bomb. However, as his specific destination request to the taxi driver was for the hospital, there is always the possibility that the hospital itself was his target. The consequences of that are too horrible to contemplate, but our experience of recent terror attacks means that it cannot be ruled out. We can only be grateful that Swealmeen was the only fatality. David Perry, the taxi driver, escaped with minor injuries.

 The obvious question arising, of course, is why did Swealmeen do it? The Sun, with its usual regard for accuracy, was in no doubt: 

"POPPY Day bomber Emad Jamil Al Swealmeen struck after his asylum bids were turned down".

As Swealmeen left no "martyrdom video" or suicide note, we cannot say for definite what drove him to his one-man bomb plot, but we can perhaps glean something from his history in this country. Al Swealmeen had a history of mental illness and lived in various countries in the Middle East before moving to the UK, a member of his tribe in Jordan told the BBC.

Wikipedia says here: 

"He arrived in the UK in around 2014 and claimed for asylum as a Syrian refugee, which was denied as officials believed him to be Jordanian rather than Syrian; his immigration status at the time of the incident is unknown. Seven years before the incident he was sectioned after trying to kill himself and waving a knife in Liverpool city centre; following this he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2015". (The Sun says 2017).

And his conversion is of particular interest, as it led to scrutiny - some of it unfriendly - of the role of the church in Liverpool. As the BBC puts it:

"The Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, has rejected criticism of the church and how they accommodate asylum seekers, saying it did the right thing in supporting Al Swealmeen. We didn't welcome a terrorist, we welcomed someone who was a little bit lost and not in his own nation and who was on a journey," he said".

This led to the wider point that asylum seekers from the Middle East - particularly from Iran - frequently convert to Christianity because they can then fight deportation on the grounds that they would face persecution or even execution in their home countries.  This is no idle point. The charity "Open Doors" has a "World Watch List" of 50 countries where Christians are being persecuted;8 out of the top 10 are predominantly Muslim states. 

This raises the question: how many of the asylum seekers are genuine converts to Christianity? Much as I hate to quote Anne Widdecombe, she had a point when she said that fake conversions in prisons are very similar, with convicts - "old lags" as Anne called them - trying to work their tickets and gain early release. It has even been discussed in Parliament. Christian News reported in 2017:

"Prisoners are pretending they have turned to Christianity in a bid to get out on parole earlier, an MP has claimed .Convicts are telling officials they're turning to God because it means they stand a better chance of being released, David Nuttall has suggested.

Speaking in the House of Commons he called for those released to have their faith monitored to ensure they have not played the system."

As for Swealmeen , who was perhaps playing the same game, he seems to have inspired confidence among established Christians. Following his conversion, he lived for eight months in Aigburth, Liverpool, with a devout Christian couple, Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchott. As The Sun says:

"Former soldier Mr Hitchott said: “He first came to the cathedral in August 2015 and wanted to convert to Christianity. He took an Alpha Course, which explains the Christian faith, and completed it in November of that year. That enabled him to come to an informed decision and he changed from Islam to Christianity and was confirmed as a Christian just before he came to live with us."

Mr Hitchott says that Swealmeen's application for asylum was rejected because of the knife incident. He was appealing against this decision and it was under review, so it is a mistake to say that he carried out the attack because his asylum application was refused. As for his conversion to Christianity, that seems to have been short-lived. After he left the Hitchotts and went to live in a bedsit, he is said to have reverted to Islam. As The Times says: 

"One theory is that Emad Al Swealmeen, who had converted to Christianity... was trying to atone for apostasy which is considered to be punishable by death by some Islamic scholars... Associates are believed to have told detectives that Al Swealmeen, 32, an Iraqi asylum seeker, had since returned to Islam, although sources said that was “not a motive for an attack”

In the end, we are none the wiser as to why Swealmeen carried out his botched attack. As the Bishop of Liverpool told the BBC:

""Even to this day the police are telling us, nobody quite knows why he did what he did."

Out of this melancholy story, however, one light of hope shines through. Apart from one pitifully small appearance by a paltry bunch of neo-Nazis outside Liverpool Women's Hospital, the people of Liverpool have remained united ( a failure for Swealmeen AND the Neo-Nazis). For this, they received praise in in a letter published on behalf of Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, Liverpool City Mayor Joanne Anderson, Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram. And a remarkable group of women turned out to condemn the far Right goons...

As theguideliverpool.com says:

"One group of women from Liverpool 8 have been campaigning outside the Women’s Hospital over the past few days, with homemade placards making their opposition to racism clear."

As a local activist, Sonia Bassey MBE, says in the same article "there's no room for terrorism, hate or racism in our city".

And we, in the rest of the UK, must aim to achieve the same. That way, the Emad Al Swealmeens of this world will always fail, however they attack.

Carnage in Birmingham: The Same Old Song

 It's not easy to write posts like this, as there is always the chance that a friend or relative of the person murdered by a mental health patient might read it - and the last thing I want is to add to their grief. There is also the fact that I have written on this topic a number of times before, and I am aware that some uncharitable people will accuse me of having a "bee in my bonnet" on this topic - as if the murder of an innocent person was something to be ignored. I for one do not think that; it's my opinion that all these victims and their loved ones are important, and deserve to be written about.

So it is with the young man in the picture above. Jacob Billington, from Crosby in Merseyside, was 23 years old when he went on a night out with friends in Birmingham on September 6, 2020. Along with seven other innocent victims, he was unfortunate enough to encounter a local man, 29-year old Zephaniah McLeod, seen below.

 In a 90-minute rampage, McLeod carried out five knife attacks in Birmingham during which he made a journey home to change knives. At the end of his violent spree, seven people were injured, some severely and Jacob Billington lay dying. Mcleod then went home, and was arrested at 4AM next morning. He has been sentenced to 21 years of incarceration and it is to be hoped that he will not "respond well" to treatment and possibly be released early - perhaps to kill again.

People who have read my previous posts on this subject will recognise one familiar factor in this case: the fact that Mcleod was well known to the police and the mental health professionals as a man with issues (to put it mildly). At his trial in Birmingham Crown Court last week, the court heard that McLeod, a paranoid schizophrenic, had refused a psychiatric appointment four days before he launched his attacks. As the BBC says: "Prior to that, McLeod had been out of contact with health services after being released from prison that April, despite a history of refusing to take his medication and hearing voices telling him to kill and stab people." (My italics). It comes as no surprise to learn that McLeod had taken narcotics before his stabbing spree, perhaps as a replacement for his medication. Yes, that is sarcasm.

Another familiar feature in this case is the bewilderment of the victims' relatives (and the rest of us) at the fact that this obviously dangerous individual was walking the streets. Jacob Billington's mother told the court that she hoped McLeod's care would be "properly looked into and that all involved remember my son bled to death in the street at the hands of someone well-known to many agencies". That is very well said, and I endorse those words but, sadly, they have been uttered many times before, and these incidents continue to happen. I have been blogging about them for a number of years and, even more sadly, I do not expect them to stop after this terrible event.

I usually end posts like this in a similar vein - a kind of resigned acceptance that these crimes will continue. But these attacks are unacceptable, and that is why I blog about them. In this incident, a young life has been ended, and we should conclude, I think, with the words of Jacob Billington's family. They have said:

"Jacob was the light of our life and we have been devastated by his loss. He was a funny, caring and wonderful person who was loved by every single person he met .He lit up every room with his boundless energy and witty humour and the loss of such a special person will be felt by all who knew him for years to come."

The trauma caused to Jacob's family - and to all such bereaved families - is agonisingly expressed by his mother, Joanne:

"I am haunted about how he died, how terrified he must have been...This tortures me every time I close my eyes."

In this, she speaks for all  the relatives of those who die at the hands of murderous mental health patients. All I can do is to express my  condolences over the loss of her son, and I am sure that I speak for all who read this blog. May Jacob Billington rest in peace, and may the questions raised by his death be satisfactorily answered. It's the same old song, but it needs to be sung.

Anti-Vaxxers: The Growing Menace

 

Back in the early days of the pandemic, and after the commencement of the vaccination campaign, we saw the beginning, in this country and others, of the "anti-vaxxer" movement, led at that time in the UK by Piers Corbyn, Jeremy's brother, seen above. 

At that time, I could not take the anti-vaxxers seriously. Their outlandish beliefs, I thought, would lead to them being disregarded as harmless nutcases and they would become marginalised, noisy, but ineffectual. Events since have led to my revising that opinion. Their beliefs remain outlandish, they remain nutcases (in my opinion) , but they are by no means harmless. In fact, they have become one of the three ugly sister groupings in our society that are ready and willing to use political violence: Fascists, Jihadis and now the militant anti-Vaxxers. Not all of the latter group engage in violence, of course, but neither do all Fascists or Jihadis. But there is a growing trend towards violence among the anti-Vaxxers and, as we will see, there is a significant overlap of membership with the extreme Right. Worryingly, the anti-Lockdown marches have attracted large numbers, some of whom have shown a readiness to attack the police.

It was at one of these rallies that an ex-nurse, Kate Shemirani, issued a threat to all NHS staff. As The Guardian says:

" In a widely circulated public speech, she compared medical staff to Nazi war criminals, referred explicitly to their executions and demanded that people gather the names of doctors and nurses in the UK."

This has led to well-founded fears that her words could lead to further attacks, verbal or otherwise , on NHS staff. I have seen TV reports of doctors coming off A&E shifts being abused by anti-Vaxxer demonstrators. The Guardian again says:

“Some nursing staff have been subjected to abhorrent behaviour throughout this pandemic,” said Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing."

This would be bad enough, but there is an abundance of evidence of anti-Vaxxer outrages. According to their barmy beliefs, 5G mobile phone masts are linked to Covid-19 and are legitimate targets for attack. 77 masts have been attacked and one engineer seriously assaulted. These outrages stopped after lockdown protests began, but there is reason to think they could start again. However, one of the most despicable of anti-Vaxxer activities has been the holding of demonstrations outside schools. The BBC reports:

"Almost eight in 10 schools said they had been targeted by anti-vaccine protesters in a recent survey by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union."

Early last month, protesters (if that's the right word) picketed a school in Gateshead where children were due to be vaccinated. The Headteacher of St Thomas More School reported that pupils arriving were shown pictures of dead children who had allegedly passed away because of vaccination. Sir Keith Starmer condemned the event, while Pritti Patel said:

"It is completely unacceptable for children, teachers, or parents to be intimidated and harassed outside their school by protesters peddling misinformation and dangerous lies about the life-saving vaccine programme."

And this type of action is more widespread that it would appear. News.co.uk says:

"Anti-vaxxine protest group Outreach Worldwide has shared footage of its protesters approaching schools and students in uniform. In one video, a woman encourages students to delay getting the vaccine as it is “still in clinical trials and is causing quite a lot of problems for young people”.

I mentioned above that anti-Vaxxers have been an unpleasant presence outside some hospitals - at least in the South East. One extreme example of this happened last month when a bunch of anti-Vaxxers turned up at Colchester Hospital waving false legal papers quoting the 'Nuremberg Code' at hard-pressed medical staff and accusing them of participating in made-up Covid 'plandemic' crimes. It is ironic that these conspiracy "theorists" quote the Nuremberg Code, set up after WW2 to prevent the repetition of medical experiments on human beings practised in the Nazi concentration camps, as we will see later. But we need to remind ourselves that anti-vaxxer activity is not exclusive to Britain.

In the United States, anti-vaxxer propaganda, especially on social media, has been blamed for the most recent surge in Covid cases. As Mother Jones online newsletter says:

"Yes, COVID-19 is surging again, this time fueled by the highly infectious and deadly Delta variant, which is ravaging the country—especially in places with low vaccination rates such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. As of August, about half of the country remains unvaccinated."

Nor have the anti-Vaxxers been slow in using lethal violence. Last month, a Maryland man, Jeffrey Allen Burnham, shot dead his brother and sister-in-law, both pharmacists, because they were "killing people with the Covid shot". 

In Italy, the 9th of this month saw an anti-Vaxxer demonstration in Rome turn violent, with (hello!) neo-Fascists prominent among the rioters. Reuters reported:

"One group of protesters tried to break through police lines to reach Prime Minister Mario Draghi's city"centre office, while a separate group tried to smash their way into the headquarters of Italy's main CGIL trade union". 

This is an appropriate time to return to the Anti-Vax movement here in the UK. As in Italy, the extreme right has been involved with the Anti-Vax, anti-lockdown movement from the very beginning. That involvement, according to Searchlight magazine, is becoming closer and deeper. One manifestation of this is the increasing violence against the police on demonstrations, as seen in the photo above. One such incident, on September 3rd, saw four London police officers injured. In August, anti-Vaxxers occupied the foyer of Channel 4 and ITN news headquarters. The broadcaster, Jon Snow, was the target of abuse on that occasion; like the Nazis, anti-vaxxers believe in attacking the press.

Searchlight, which has an outstanding record for exposing the machinations of the far right, says that Fascists are organising anti-vaxxer groups to renew attacks on 5G masts. Besides this, they are encouraging all eligible activists to apply for firearms licences. Anyone failing to see the danger in this should think back to Thomas Mair, who owned legally-held firearms which he used to murder Jo Cox, M.P. One anti-vaxxer group, Veterans 4 Freedom (V4F), was investigated by the Daily Mail back in August.  This group of disgruntled ex-servicemen were planning to attack vaccination centres, sabotage vaccine supplies and target staff. Ominously, they were talking of stockpiling weapons. Weapon of choice for this group is the crossbow, which is legal to purchase, although some veterans are talking of converting pistols to rifles and, if eligible, obtaining firearms certificates. Since the Mail article appeared, this group has disbanded, although some members have regrouped, forming the Global Veterans' Alliance. 

It's not for me to even begin to speculate what drives the anti-vax movement worldwide, still less in Britain. That is the province of social psychologists. I can, however, point to some political indicators. As Searchlight says:

"We have yet to come across a single Remain voter within the network of anti-lockdown groups". 

It comes as no surprise. Nor do we see many (any?) black or Asian faces on the anti-lockdown marches. The anti-vax, anti-lockdown movement should be seen as what I strongly believe it to be: a menagerie of bigots, fantasists and conspiracy theorists, ripe for exploitation by the extreme right.