Last week’s third and final report by Sir John Saunders into the Manchester Arena bombing offered numerous startling insights into Salman Abedi, whose murderous instincts cost the lives of 22 people at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in 2017. Among them was the observation that Abedi’s actions could be traced to his family; the “noxious” absences of his parents; their extremist views along with those of his older brother. It was Abedi’s family, said Saunders, who held “significant responsibility” for the radicalisation of Abedi and his younger brother, Hashem.
Their father, Ramadan, was an active member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). Like many Islamists, he sought refuge in the UK in 1993 as Muammar Gaddafi’s security apparatus hunted them. Many children of Islamist leaders who sought refuge in our country grew up to become activists and mouthpieces for an Islamist set of narratives that was never really part of British Muslim communities before the mid-90s. Steeped in victimhood, “the west” versus Islam, such narratives propagated heavily laden conspiracies that Islam was under threat.
