Neighbors of Manchester synagogue attacker say they told police he was ‘radicalizing’

Neighbors of the terrorist who carried out the deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur had warned police that he was becoming “radicalized” and trying to “preach” the Quran to children, according to the Guardian.

Unnamed neighbors quoted by the UK newspaper say Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a Syrian-born British citizen, became increasingly radical following the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020, when he began attempting to “preach the Quran” on the street where he lived and hosting private gatherings in the yard.

“They just started wearing all the robes and everything. I thought [one relative] was being radicalized because he wouldn’t speak to us for a bit,” a neighbor is quoted as saying. ““He was coming up the road preaching to kids about the Quran. It was quite intimidating. It was intrusive.”

The neighbors also say that police visited al-Shamie’s home earlier this year, and that he “became reclusive” after suffering “brain damage” after falling off a cliff around 20 years ago.

“Jihad had a bad accident,” one of the neighbors tells the Guardian. “He fell off a cliff and got airlifted to London. He had massive head injuries, it was horrific. You didn’t see much of him after that — he became very quiet and reclusive.”

British police say they are investigating if the attacker — who was out on bail for suspected rape — may been influenced by an Islamist ideology, but have stressed he was not on any counter-terror watchlist.