
Elon Musk's blunt warning that "violence is coming" to the UK because of its failed immigration policy dating back decades has turned out to be chillingly prophetic. Within just weeks of the tech entrepreneur issuing his dire warning, two Jewish worshippers were killed and three others wounded in a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Manchester, carried out by a Muslim jihadi.
The unprovoked attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, should serve as a warning to the US and other Western countries about the dangers of lax immigration policies.
Jihad al-Shamie, the 35-year-old terrorist responsible for carrying out the Manchester synagogue attack, came from a family of Syrian immigrants who had lived in the UK since the 1990s and been granted British citizenship.
Details have subsequently emerged of the terrorist's Islamist links, with UK security officials reporting that Shamie called the emergency services on the day of the attack, in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
It was also reported that the terrorist's father, Faraj al-Shamie, posted a message on Facebook after the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered and about 250 civilians and soldiers taken hostage, praising the terrorists responsible for committing the massacre as "Allah's men on earth". He added that the Hamas terrorists who invaded the Jewish state had "proved beyond a shadow of a doubt" that Israel would be destroyed eventually.
In another recent UK case involving Muslim migrants, an Afghan asylum seeker has been charged with threatening to kill Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK's anti-immigration Reform Party. Prior to crossing the English Channel in a small boat from France, Fayaz Khan, a 26-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, posted a video clip online claiming he was "going to shoot him" -- a reference to Farage.
With counter-terrorism officials warning that the huge influx of illegal immigrants entering European countries could lead to further terrorist atrocities, Musk's warning that the UK needed a "revolutionary government change" to tackle the migrant crisis could not be more timely.
Addressing a "Unite the Kingdom" anti-immigration rally in London last month, Musk warned that "uncontrolled migration" would result in further terrorist attacks.
"Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die."
Musk also called for "a change of government in Britain" because of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's failure to tackle the migration crisis.
Musk has been a vocal critic of Europe's failure to address the challenge of mass immigration, saying at a rally in the summer that there would be "widespread slaughter" in Europe unless the authorities took a tougher stance on the inflow of illegal migrants.
Nor is the threat posed by Muslim migrants confined only to the UK. In Germany, security officials detained three suspected terrorists accused of plotting to target Jewish institutions. Two of those arrested were born in Lebanon.
Concerns about an upsurge in violent attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets both in Europe and the US come against a background of rising anti-Semitism since October 7, 2023.
The scale of the problem in the UK was highlighted when anti-Israel protests took place in Manchester and other British cities despite the distress caused to the Jewish community by the Manchester synagogue attack. Starmer publicly denounced the protests, and urged those taking part to "recognise and respect the grief of British Jews", while a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which provides security for the UK's Jewish community, said the protests were "phenomenally tone deaf".
The ability of the UK security authorities to tackle the problem has been undermined by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who claims that anti-Israel protesters who chant "From the river to the sea" are not anti-Semitic. Khan argues that whether the phrase was anti-Semitic or not depends on the context in which it is spoken.
There will be concerns that attitudes such as this will take root in other Western cities, where politicians espousing a similar radical agenda are seeking votes.
In New York, for example, there are concerns that the election of Zohran Mamdani as the city's next mayor could have a similar outcome in legitimising anti-Israel sentiment in the city, and from there throughout the United States. Reportedly, supporters of Mamdani are "training 30 more people" to bring his policies to more American cities.
As Israel marked the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Mamdani, who has been accused of supporting radical Islamist ideology, marked the anniversary with a post criticising Israel and the US and calling for an end to "occupation and apartheid."
His comments prompted a furious response from Israel's Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement declaring:
"Two years after Hamas launched its barbaric massacre against Israel and the Jewish people, Mamdani has chosen to act as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda — spreading Hamas's fake genocide campaign."
There have already been countless instances of such Islamic violence in Europe and the US, including both World Trade Center attacks (1993 and September 11, 2001), as well as in the UK (here, here, here and here); Germany (here, here, here and here); France (here, here, here, here, here, and here), Denmark, Sweden and Spain (here and here).
The deeply disturbing trends in Europe, therefore, where anti-Israel activists receive encouragement from the political establishment while the rise in anti-Semitism is left untouched, should serve as a warning to the US and its Western allies about the dangers of tolerating large-scale immigration, especially concerning migrants who struggle to impose Islamic sharia law and the judicial systems of the countries from which they came, rather than adopt the laws and values of the West.
Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.