For years, Manchester synagogue attacker Jihad Al-Shamie lay in wait as he viewed terrorist material online, biding his time before he decided to strike.
Earlier this month, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the year for Jews, the 35-year-old attacked Jewish worshippers at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.
He stabbed one person to death, and when armed police shot at Al-Shamie, a worshipper who was said to be holding the synagogue doors closed was caught by a stray bullet and also died. Al-Shamie was shot dead.
Before his death, he called 999 and reportedly said: ‘I have killed two Jews in the name of the Islamic State.’
The police and MI5 were unable to establish any actual links between al-Shamie and terror groups and instead believe he was a lone wolf who viewed extremist material online.
Security experts have warned about the threat of terrorist literature online that suggests targeting synagogues for years.
In 2015, the Community Security Trust, a charity advising and supporting the UK’s Jewish community in matters of antisemitism, extremism and terrorism, told Parliament: ‘Since April 2015, Isil-linked Twitter accounts, including those of British foreign fighters, have circulated an English-language jihadist guidebook, How to Survive in the West, that, among other targets, recommends to ”set off car bombs near Synagogues.”
‘The damaging impact of a successful mass casualty terrorist attack on UK Jewish communal life would be devastating, and cohesion in British society could be put at risk.’
Today, less than a month after Al-Shamie’s horrific attack on a Manchester synagogue ‘in the name of Isis,’ the Daily Mail can reveal that the same 71-page handbook proposing synagogues as targets, How To Survive In The West, has remained easily accessible for the last decade.
It’s been downloaded by a string of UK-based terrorists since 2015, and despite the Mail alerting the security services to its whereabouts, it is still online today.
This Islamist terror handbook on how to be a terrorist in the West has been widely available online for years despite warnings about it a decade ago
How To Survive In The West suggests that terrorists ‘set off car bombs near synagogues’. Even after the Manchester Synagogue attack, the manual is still on the internet today
Terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, (pictured) was a lone wolf who, according to the police and MI5, viewed extremist material online before carrying out an attack that left two Jews dead outside a synagogue in Manchester
This week, the CST told the Mail: ‘If anything, the problem of extremist material online has got even worse in the past decade.
‘The easy access to this kind of dangerous material online is a major part of the problem of modern terrorism and extremism, and tech companies repeatedly fail to meet their obligations to protect the public.’
Chapters in the How To Survive In The West manual include ‘Hiding the extremist identity’, ‘B0mb making’ (which may have been misspelt to avoid automatic censoring) and ‘What happens when you are spied on and get raided’.
Explaining its purpose, the unnamed author said: ‘This book is a guide for the Muslims who are living in a majority non Muslim land, or a country where the rulers are harsh towards the believers.
‘It will explain to you the different scenarios you may get into and how to react. It will teach you how to be a secret agent who lives a double life, something Muslims will have to do to survive in the coming years.’
They added that the ‘biggest priority’ for the Mujahideen, the Muslims who carry out Jihad, was to hide the fact that they have been radicalised.
It said: ‘Those who go on the offensive will more likely receive martyrdom instead of long-term imprisonment.’
The guide teaches terrorists how to make money by scamming people, suggests hacking Israeli credit cards and stealing money from employers.
Chapters in the terror manual include ‘Bomb making’, ‘Hising the extremist identity’ and ‘Transporting weapons’
The manual gave detailed instructions on how to make bombs at home. The Mail has pixelated parts of the manual we are picturing for safety
It also explained, with step-by-step images, how to make a mobile phone detonator for a bomb
It instructs extremists to keep fit, learn self-defence techniques and read the SAS Survival Handbook to learn how to stay alive while on the run.
Instead of using automatic guns, the manual suggests crossbows, Molotov cocktails and DIY bombs as an extremist’s weapon of choice.
The manual added: ‘It takes planning and care to transport weapons from the Balkans or eastern Europe into western Europe and particularly into Britain.’
It has a detailed chapter on how to create nail bombs, car bombs and remote-controlled explosives using items the terrorist can buy legally.
In one of the most sickening lines of the manual, the author said: ‘In modern Jihad, symbolic places are hit at symbolic dates (i.e. September 11) to get more media attention and to show Muslims still have power.’
Of course, Al-Shamie carried out his attack on the Manchester synagogue this year on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.
The book also suggests using protests by neo-Nazis to fuel tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims, and praises the success of other terror attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.
The manual also highlighted that British police shared photos of Shamima Begum and her two friends when the three teenagers fled the UK in 2015 to join Isis as a reason why disguises were important.
The manual’s ‘last words of advice’ are: ‘Supporting the Islamic cause is a mentality and ideology more than anything else.
‘You are always looking at everything through your Mujahid eyes, always thinking how any situation could benefit the Jihad.
‘Any opportunity can be a Mujahid moment. Any opportunity to get money, anonymity, weapons, friendships, leadership positions amongst Muslims, and even beneficial knowledge is your Jihad and will help you in the future.
‘You will get rewarded from Allah — in this life and the next — for every Jihad effort you take.
‘When the Jihad reaches your neighbourhood, rise up and race towards martyrdom. That has been your goal from the beginning; that is why you are reading this book.
‘Do not let the temptation of money and weapons override your intention of seeking martyrdom.’
Today, the national terrorism threat level is ‘substantial,’ meaning an attack is likely.
The Government’s latest strategy for countering terrorism promises that UK authorities, including MI5, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ofcom, and the Home Office, will work with tech companies to ‘reduce the availability of terrorist and violent extremist content online’.
Codenamed ‘Contest’, the strategy said: ‘Terrorists exploit technology to hide their networks, spread their propaganda and enable their attacks.
‘Accelerating availability of new technologies and online platforms provides both opportunity and risk to our counter-terrorism efforts.
‘Technology is a critical enabler of our counter-terrorism efforts, where careful and proportionate use of cutting-edge techniques can make our response more efficient and effective.
‘We will build on our engagement with the tech sector, participating in the coordinated, international effort to suppress terrorist exploitation of the internet.
‘This includes cooperation with companies to improve their policies and capabilities to reduce the availability and credibility of terrorist and violent extremist content online, as well as partnership with non-governmental organisations.
‘Following royal assent of the Online Safety Bill, we will look to Ofcom as the independent online safety regulator to hold technology companies to account for how they prevent, identify and remove terrorist content and activity online, while upholding freedom of expression.’
It should be noted that the manual does contain some peculiar advice.
A section on disguises suggests coloured wigs, fake moustaches and beards and coloured contact lenses as methods of avoiding capture.
Another says terrorists can learn to shoot by buying Nerf guns for target practice.
But despite this, How To Survive In The West has undeniably remained a handbook favoured by terrorists around the world.
In 2015, two Isis fanatics were arrested after posting threatening photos of Italian landmarks alongside Isis slogans.
Both had access to a downloaded version of How To Survive In The West.
In 2017, 21-year-old Abdur-Rehman Gul was already serving a life sentence in the UK for stabbing his mother to death.
Even so, he was still able to speak to extremists on Telegram and shared How To Survive In The West. Gul was sentenced to an additional three years for this.
A former police officer told the Daily Mail that lone wolf attackers like Al-Shamie (pictured) can become self-radicalised by terror manuals online
During the Manchester synagogue attack, Al-Shamie called 999 and reportedly said: ‘I have killed two Jews in the name of the Islamic State’
Al-Shamie was shot dead by police following the attack outside a synagogue in Manchester. Pictured: An Army bomb disposal expert and a remote-controlled robot check his body
People in tears were seen comforting one another near the synagogue after the deadly attack
In the same year, Zakaria Afey, 20, from Cardiff, downloaded How To Survive In The West. He also admitted sharing a link to ‘Virgins Of Paradise’, a song praising Osama bin Laden and encouraging ‘martyrdom’. He was sentenced to 30 months at a youth offenders centre.
In 2017, Asda worker Ryan Ashley Counsell, 28, from Nottingham, was jailed for eight years for trying to join Isis. He also downloaded the terror manual.
In the same year, Sheffield University dentistry student Mohammed Awan, 24, the brother of a suicide bomber killed in Iraq, was jailed for ten years for terrorism offences.
He had bought 500 ball bearings, downloaded How To Survive In The West and was arrested while preparing to carry out a terror attack in Britain.
The following year, 22-year-old Mohammed Imran, a friend of the Isis terrorist who planned to kill then-Prime Minister Theresa May, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
During his trial, the jury was told he downloaded How To Survive In The West while hoping to join Isis.
The same year, 2018, Bradford CCTV operator Asim Majid, 30, who was secretly a propagandist for Isis, was jailed for 12 years. He also had a copy of the manual.
The manual has also made its way to America. In 2021, 28-year-old New Yorker Ali Saleh was sentenced to 30 years in jail for trying to provide material support and resources to Isis. On his phone, he had a copy of How To Survive In The West.
Former police officer Norman Brennan told the Daily Mail that the availability of extremist manuals like How To Survive In The West has made the security services’ jobs more difficult by allowing people not on any terror watchlist to self-radicalise.
He said: ‘The public won’t be aware of the huge number of terror attacks that MI5 and MI6 prevent.
‘What they really don’t need is for these books that can turn someone not on the radar to commit an atrocity on the streets of Britain.
‘Anything that encourages people to get involved in terrorism should be taken off all sites.
‘A lot of these books can push somebody to become self-radicalised. Someone being self-radicalised is the most dangerous — those not on the radar in any way, shape or form.
‘They may see something like this, and it gives them an idea. It may push them to take action.
‘You only need one person to read such propaganda, and they could be responsible for a huge number of deaths.
‘Sites need to take some responsibility. They should know the potential of such literature.
‘It’s very clear from these books what they’re about. Taking down this propaganda should be done without question. [Tech companies] shouldn’t be asked to take it down.
‘One atrocity is one atrocity too much. Every time there’s an attack, it has a ricochet effect across Britain.’
A government spokeswoman said: ‘We are aware of the vile contents of this manual, and have urged online search engines and social media providers to remove it.
‘We will not let terror defeat us, which is why the UK has one of the most robust counter-terrorism frameworks in the world.
‘We are ensuring we have the tools and powers needed to stop the spread of violence and hatred against individuals and communities.’
An Ofcom spokesman said: ‘Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, search services must take proportionate steps to minimise the risk of users encountering illegal material online, including terrorism content.
‘They must also minimise the risk of children encountering harmful content including violence or content that incites hatred.
‘Our role under the Online Safety Act is not to assess individual pieces of content or take down specific posts.
‘Instead, our powers involve making sure sites, apps and search services have effective systems and processes in place to protect people their users.
‘Our illegal harms duties came into force in March this year and we’re closely scrutinising companies’ compliance with these duties.
‘If they fail to act and put their users at risk in the process, they can expect to face enforcement action.’
