I stand with Israel - why do people think because I'm black and Muslim I won't?

IS it different because I’m a black Muslim woman? I stand with Israel, just as I stand with other countries that are the victims of terror attacks. Yet people say antisemitic things in front of me and expect me to agree, or they grow angry at my condemnations of terror.

- Nimco Ali

To recap: on Saturday October 7, terrorists attacked Israel, killing more than a thousand Jewish people including babies. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish community since the Holocaust.

Hearing the news I prayed for those lost and started texting my Jewish friends in London and some in Israel. I tweeted that I stood with Israel. Within minutes my Twitter and Instagram accounts were being flooded with hate and disgusting messages from people who were literally supporting the terror attacks.

I ignored this. But when on Sunday I made a comment on TV about how we seem to always dismiss the harm done to the Jewish community and how we can’t even acknowledge, let alone condemn, the murder of Jewish babies, things took an extreme turn.

People were suddenly foaming at the mouth that I would even have the nerve to talk about the terror Hamas caused rather than the politics of the region.

In fact, this has been a thread throughout my life — noticing the casual (and worse) racism towards Jewish people in Britain.