(Jewish News) One of Manchester’s most prominent concert venues has been heavily criticised for ignoring Jewish community concerns about a hate preacher it hosted earlier this year — after it transpired that his social media account was one of [a] small number followed by the terrorist who carried out last week’s attack on Heaton Park Synagogue.
Bridgewater Hall in Manchester city centre hosted Sheikh Mishary Alafasy, a Kuwaiti cleric, in early January, ignoring concerns highlighted by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region (JRC) regarding extremist antisemitic comments made by the preacher.
At the time the JRC released a statement saying that “despite raising our concerns regarding previous racist and inflammatory comments made by Sheikh Alafasy including calls for violence against Jewish people and social media posts accusing Jews of condoning child rape, the Trustees of the Bridgewater Hall and Leadership of Manchester City Council have not seen fit to cancel this event.”
