The murder on Friday of United Kingdom Member of Parliament Sir David Amess was an act of unspeakable savagery that was met with revulsion by those at home and abroad.
Sir David, who first became a Conservative MP in 1983 when Margaret Thatcher won a second term as prime minister, was described by friends and colleagues as a committed public servant who was dedicated to furthering animal welfare and was known for his skepticism of the European Union.
In the hours following the stabbing attack, which occurred when Sir David was meeting constituents at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, it emerged the alleged killer is a 25-year-old man of Somali heritage who had previously been referred to a counter-terrorism scheme called Prevent, which aims to stop individuals from becoming radicalized by extremist ideologues.
Ali Harbi Ali was initially apprehended at the scene on suspicion of murder but has since been transferred to London where he is being held under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act.
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted a message to Twitter in which he extended his condolences to the family of the slain politician, describing him as “a true friend of the Jewish community and the State of Israel” whose “tragic loss will be felt by many.”
I send my heartfelt condolences to the family and loved ones of British MP Sir David Amess. He was a true friend of the Jewish community and the State of Israel.
His tragic loss will be felt by many.
— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) October 16, 2021
Indeed, Sir David was an ally of the Jewish state, having been appointed the Honorary Secretary of the Conservative Friends of Israel from 1998 and campaigned for the UK government to increase its efforts to combat antisemitism in a speech marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
At the same time, he was a longstanding supporter of his local Muslim community and was described in a joint statement by Islamic faith leaders in the area of Southend as an “upstanding friend” who had attended events such as Islamic weddings and mosque openings.
Nonetheless, the Mail on Sunday apparently thought it was appropriate to contact notorious Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary to speculate on what motivated Sir David’s murderer. In 2016, Choudary, who is subject to US state department sanctions, was convicted of inviting support for proscribed terrorist organization ISIS and was sentenced under the Terrorism Act to more than five years in prison, although he was released early on license.
The resulting MoS piece titled, ‘Preacher Anjem Choudary sparks fury by suggesting Sir David Amess may have been killed for being ‘pro-Israel,’ states:
Speaking from his council home in Ilford, East London, the 54-year-old said: ‘I am not sure about this particular MP’s views. The rumours are that he is pro-Israel, and he is part of the Conservative Party and they have been in power a long time, especially during the campaigns in Muslim countries such as Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan.’
When asked how Mr Amess’s ‘pro-Israel’ stance would make him a target, Choudary replied: ‘Many people do [believe] that it is a terrorist state, and who would possibly be a friend of Israel after you see the carnage that they carried out against Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and continue to do with the appropriation of properties?’”
The article later notes that while Sir David was a member of a group that backs the Jewish state, he was “not known for taking a hardline pro-Israeli stance.”
There are three troubling elements to this article.
First, from the description that Choudary was speaking from his home and the fact that, as yet, no other publication has printed his comments, we can only assume the MoS sent a journalist to doorstep or at the very least to call this publicly-reviled figure to ask his views on the brutal murder of an MP less than 48 hours after the tragedy occurred.
It is a mystery why a news outlet would give a platform to the ramblings of a man who inspired terrorists, including the killers of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, and who was once described as “the gateway to terror.”
Second, given the title of the article it appears the MoS contacted Choudary specifically with a view to manufacturing a “fury” — and, as a corollary, drive traffic to its site — even as Britain and the world at large were still reeling in shock from the murder.
In this respect, the MoS was the cause of the effect it subsequently reported on.
If so, to say that artificially creating an upheaval in order to sell some advertising on the heels of such a gruesome event is unethical would be an understatement.
It is also worth noting that the “fury” Choudary is accused of causing has also, it would seem, been entirely fabricated by the MoS. Apart from Choudary, just one other individual is quoted in the piece, extremism expert Professor Anthony Glees.
Glees, it appears, was contacted by the publication on Saturday night and asked to comment on the hate preacher’s incendiary remarks, to which he replied:
Not only is it outrageous and repugnant, but the whole motive of the attack is a matter for the police – not Mr Choudary.”
It would be interesting to know whether the journalist who called Professor Glees informed him that it was the MoS itself that asked Choudary to hypothesize about a motive in the first place.
Third, Choudary used this opportunity to link the murder to Sir David’s support of Israel. Yet, police have made no indication there is any kind of connection between the two, nor is there any suggestion that Choudary even knew the suspect and could, therefore, be in a position to theorize on his motive.
In essence, then, the Mail on Sunday appears to have acted as Choudary’s “gateway” to further his poisonous agenda without offering a shred of evidence that Sir David’s positions on Israel in any way contributed to his twisted killing.
Update: An earlier version of this article referred to the Daily Mail when the story was originally published in its sister publication, the Mail on Sunday.
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Photo credit: Richard Townshend, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/
