The Muslim Council of Britain is deeply saddened by the murder of Henry Nowak, an eighteen-year-old whose life was cruelly taken by a murderer. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
The tragedy was compounded by Henry being assumed to be the perpetrator rather than the victim, ostensibly because of his skin colour. He spent his last moments being arrested for a crime he was the victim of. This is what has upset so many. The assumptions we make about people can cost lives.
Despite his grief, Henry’s father said “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.” His warmth and empathy contrasts sharply with the call for “pure cold rage” by those choosing to exploit the tragedy for their own agendas.
The actions of the murderer belong to him alone. We stand in solidarity with our Sikh brothers and sisters, who should not face collective blame for the action of one violent individual just as we stand with the victims of the knife crime epidemic who are paying the highest price for society’s inability to deal with it.
A person is not a criminal because of their ethnicity or religion. We honour Henry’s memory by redoubling efforts against knife crime, by refusing to judge anyone by anything other than the content of their character and by turning this tragedy into an opportunity to build more unity, not less.
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