UK
Resilience, relief and deep concern among Manchester’s Jews in wake of terror plot convictions
Police said that had the attack not been foiled it could have been the ‘deadliest in UK history’
December 24, 2025 12:52
Police said that had the attack not been foiled it could have been the ‘deadliest in UK history’
December 24, 2025 12:52Members of Manchester's Jewish community have reacted with a mixture of relief, deep concern and resilience after the two jihadis who had planned to carry out an Isis-inspired attack against Jews in the city were convicted on Tuesday.
Police said the plot by Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, could have been the “deadliest terrorist attack in UK history”.
News of the convictions comes just two months after another terrorist launched a fatal gun attack on Manchester's Heaton Park Synagogue.
Andrew Walters, an independent councillor for Kersal and Broughton Park in Salford, who is Orthodox, told the Guardian: “We love life – and we believe that if we die, we’re going to a better place. We refuse to be afraid.”
“There’s good and bad in any community. Most just want to live in peace,” he said, adding the old Jewish joke: "They tried to kill us, they failed, lets eat.”
Raphi Bloom, of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester (JRC Greater Manchester), told the BBC: "What we actually need to do is to address the root cause of what is driving the radicalisation of people here in the United Kingdom who want to target the Jewish community.
"The government... in our opinion, have been far too slow to tackle this extremism, and if [it doesn’t], these attacks will be planned and will be carried out again and again.
"[There is] a grave, grave threat to the Jewish community in Greater Manchester and the UK".
Bloom thanked the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for their "tireless work".
Citing this incident as well as several others, Dave Rich, the Community Security Trust's (CST) head of policy said: “A big part of our work on the security side is trying to identify and disrupt hostile reconnaissance of Jewish targets that would precede an attack.
“The thing about Manchester is, you’ve had the Heaton Park attack... You had the guy who flew from Blackburn to Texas to hold people hostage at a synagogue. You had the guy who went into Marks and Spencer in Burnley and stabbed two people because he said Marks and Spencer supports Israel.
“And you can go back to… the Oldham couple who were building bombs... so, you’ve got a pattern now of Islamist terrorism and antisemitism coming out of towns and suburbs north of the city. I think there’s a genuine question to be asking, ‘what is going on there specifically?'”
Jeremy Michelson, the vice-president of the Board of Deputies, said: “All we ever wanted from Britain was to give us a chance to live here, practise our faith and contribute – and we’ve done that.”
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: "Antisemitism will never have any place in our society and we are absolutely determined to stamp it out wherever it exists.
"We stand in solidarity with Jewish communities here and everywhere."
He also praised the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
"Their work has saved lives and made all of us safer," he said.
GMP Constable Sir Stephen Watson echoed this praise and said: "Throughout this trial, it was clear that the offenders' hatred towards our Jewish community knew no bounds.
"They sought to bring slaughter to the innocent, but the outstanding dedication and commitment of our people ensured that this could not happen.
"I hope [the] verdict provides comfort and reassurance to our Jewish community and to all the people of Greater Manchester that justice has been served."
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