A tragedy hijacked – MEND’s statement on Henry Nowak

Henry Nowak’s murder was a tragedy that could have been avoided. Our hearts are with his family and with all who loved him. His family deserves to grieve in peace. Instead, their loss has been hijacked.

When Henry’s killer was sentenced, his father, Mark, asked that his son’s death not be used to create division, hatred or tension, but to make our streets safer for everyone. Within hours, the far right had trampled that plea and seized the tragedy for themselves.

Tommy Robinson and his followers brought disorder to the streets of Southampton. Nigel Farage reached for the language of “two-tier Britain” and “cold rage.” They made their comments in public, so we will say this in public: this was not grief, and it was not justice for Henry. It was opportunism dressed as outrage.

And true to form, Robinson – never slow to blame Islam and Muslims – was not deterred in the slightest by the fact that the perpetrator was a Sikh man. The facts of the case were never the point. The target was always Britain’s minorities, and any tragedy will do as a pretext.

They took a real horror, stripped it of its truth, and turned it into fuel against whichever community is convenient.And now the noise they’ve generated pulls attention away from the questions that actually demand answers. A young man told officers he could not breathe, that he had been stabbed, and was disbelieved and handcuffed as he lay dying. That catastrophic failure of policing, and the accountability it demands, is what justice for Henry looks like. The far right grifters offer only heat, division and a body to stand on

Ultimately the guilt lies with one man, solely and entirely. As Henry’s own father said, this is a case about murder, not about anyone’s religion.

To our Sikh neighbours, who condemned this killing without reservation and grieved alongside Henry’s family, we understand what you’re going through and stand in solidarity with you. If any community knows what it is to be blamed as a whole for the act of one individual, it is the Muslim community. We will not stay silent while the same is done to others.

Henry’s family asked that his death not divide us. We honour that wish by refusing to let the opportunists win.