Peter Hitchens claims Manchester synagogue attack was ‘not antisemitism’

Instead, he advanced a more unorthodox theory of what may have motivated al-Shamie – an addiction to “super-strength cannabis”.

He went on: "There are appalling numbers of these marijuana-inflicted events. We never look at them with any care because so many people want to use them for the various majestic, self-important political causes they back.

"Crazy people are always attaching themselves to political and religious causes.

"My friend Ross Grainger has compiled a whole book, Attacker Smoked Cannabis, about the numerous cases of mad, unpolitical violence committed by people of all races and colours but who have in common one thing – the long-term abuse of marijuana.”

Hitchens compared the attack to the Uvalde school shooting in 2022 and the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013.

In the latter case, Hitchens claimed that one of Rigby’s killers, Michael Adebowale, was not “politically motivated” as he “could barely think, being a long-term smoker of extra-powerful skunk [a form of cannabis]”.

He continued: “Here we go making the same mistake again, with heavyweight thinkers declaring that the Manchester synagogue crime has changed their view of antisemitism in Britain and made them fear for this country's Jews more than before.

“There may be other reasons to be concerned about that. But the al-Shamie case is yet another piece of evidence that we need to do something about the spread of marijuana, especially among the young whose brains are most vulnerable to it.”

And, by way of a solution, he concluded: “Japan and South Korea still prosecute possession of cannabis – as we used to - and have far fewer problems as a result”.