Terror expert Erick Stakelbeck says that fears over “political correctness” prevented associates and neighbors of Manchester bomber Salman Abedi from reporting him to authorities despite clear signs that Abedi was a dangerous jihadist.
Amazingly, Abedi hanged an ISIS flag from the roof of his house that was visible to his neighbors but none of them reported him to the police.
He was also heard loudly chanting Islamic prayers in the street but this did not raise alarms either, nor did the innumerable people visiting his house at all hours of the day and night.
Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Stakelbeck if neighbors’ fear of appearing “racist” or “bigoted” might have prevented them from raising the alarm.
“Political correctness is going to be the death of us, it’s been the death of far too many people,” he responded, adding that moderate Muslims were also not identifying extremists in their communities for fear of retribution.
Stakelbeck also drew attention to comments made by Sheikh Mohammad Saeed, an imam at the mosque attended by the terrorist, who said that Abedi had ISIS sympathies.
After Saeed gave an anti-ISIS speech, Abedi showed him a “face of hate,” leading Saeed to conclude, “I could tell this person hates me. You understand, it’s no surprise to me [that he was the attacker].”
Despite this, Saeed made no effort to report Abedi to authorities.
Stakelbeck said the situation would only get worse given that ISIS fighters with western passports are returning to European countries in greater numbers.
Another disturbing aspect the story is the fact that Abedi’s father, who was arrested the day after the Manchester attack, was given refugee status in the UK despite being a member of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated LIFG terror group.
Reluctance to report these red flags on the part of associates and neighbors mirrors what happened before the San Bernardino attack in 2015.
Neighbors of jihadists Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik refused to report the pair to police after witnessing suspicious activity at their apartment over fears they would be labeled racist.
Neighbors observed several Middle Easterners move into the apartment and then start receiving “lots of package deliveries,” but they “did not want to racially profile” so failed to alert authorities.
As we discuss in the video below, an eyewitness at Manchester Area also saw a woman acting suspiciously, fidgeting with her bag and looking nervously towards the place where the explosion subsequently happened.
She alerted security, but was told that she was making the suspicious-acting woman uncomfortable, presumably because she was Muslim, and nothing was done.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.
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