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Birmingham, England, Bars Israeli Soccer Fans rather than Police Islamist Radicals
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. It comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester. What is unusual is that these fans are being barred not as likely perpetrators of violence but as potential victims. The police cite a 2024 riot in Amsterdam after a match between that city's Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, in which Muslim cabbies and others hounded and assaulted Jewish fans. Asrar Rashid, a local Muslim scholar, said this month of Maccabi fans: "We will not show them mercy in Birmingham." Birmingham appears to have a radical Islamist problem, and authorities are bowing to it rather than policing it. It's a shocking statement about antisemitism in Britain if officials can't guarantee the safety of a relatively small number of peaceful soccer fans backing an Israeli team.