Women join interfaith solidarity walk to site of terror attack

In a powerful show of solidarity, Jewish, Muslim and Christian women this afternoon walked through Golders Green to the site of yesterday’s antisemitic terrorist attack.

Organised by Dr Lindsay Simmonds, who is Jewish, and Julie Siddiqi from the Muslim community, the group of over 100 women walked together, some arm in arm.

At the end of the walk, standing just yards from where Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed, Siddiqi, a prominent figure in interfaith work, told the group: “We just have to remember there are so many more people like us than not, living here, living all over the country. We just have to remember that the loud, angry, divisive hatred is not the majority. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that as otherwise, we can feel hopeless and helpless.”

Siddiqi, who is co-founder of Muslim-Jewish women’s group Nisa-Nashim, said that antisemitism needed “to be addressed in a different way. People are just not understanding it and don’t understand the fear that I understand because I know so many of you as friends.”

She said that on hearing about yesterday’s attack, she “felt sick” and that the decision to walk through Golders Green had been a “deliberate” choice because “every single Jewish person in this country has a connection to this place in one way or another”.

Julie Siddiqi (left) and Dr Lindsay Simmonds (Photo: Gaby Wine)[Missing Credit]

Siddiqi said that the area felt less busy than usual, as people were staying away out of fear. “That’s what terrorism, that’s what extremism is trying to do. People told me: ‘Don’t come here because it’s not safe to come here.’ When people were telling me that, I felt even more determination. I’m not going to allow whoever it is – far-right groups, other groups, Muslims – others to tell me whether I can come here or not. I wanted to come here...People can’t make us feel even more unsafe.”

Speaking to the JC, Dr Simmonds said: “We felt that friendship is very deep and represents for us the ordinary person who gets on with life with kindness, with compassion and cares when other people are hurting.”

The group were joined by a number of Christian leaders, including Reverend Emily Kolltveit, the vicar from St Jude on the Hill in Hampstead Garden Suburb, who said: “These are my neighbours. This is my community, and I feel really passionately that I wanted to be here physically to be able to stand by my community and say that I’m praying for everybody and that I really care about this situation.

“This is impacting the Christian community as much as the local Jews. We all want to be able to work together and to be able to pray and play together as a community. I think it’s really important that we got to come here as women and walk together.”

Women's interfaith solidarity walk (Photo: Gaby Wine)[Missing Credit]

This morning, the Prime Minister visited Hatzola Northwest in Golders Green, where his motorcade was greeted with heckles of “Keir Starmer, Jew harmer”.

By contrast, the interfaith walk was calm, with a strong sense of camaraderie.

A Muslim lady on the walk, who asked not to be named, said: “A random attack on someone who is identified as Jewish - or on anyone - is unacceptable in our country, and we need to stay united against people who are trying to divide us.”

Laura Marks, co-founder of Nisa-Nashim, told the JC afterwards: “The quiet power of women was demonstrated again this afternoon in this uplifting and positive gesture of solidarity.

"Well done Julie and Lindsay for pulling it off. It reminded me, as [cultural anthropologist] Margaret Mead famously said, that a small group of citizens can make a massive difference.”

A 45-year-old British national, born in Somalia, who came to the UK legally in the 1990s, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

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Topics:

Golders Green stabbing

Nisa-Nashim

Interfaith walk

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