The Manchester Arena attack, which occurred on May 22, 2017, continues to receive special attention and resonance with the accounts of the families of the victims that are presented to the world by the British media.
The violent terrorist attack targeted a concert by pop singer Ariana Grande, killing 23 people and wounding nearly 120 others. It was carried out by Salman Abedi, an ideologically affiliated with ISIS, who in turn claimed responsibility for the explosion.
It is noteworthy that Salman’s brother, Hashim, was handed over by the Deterrence Force to the British authorities and he is now on trial in this horrific case. An English court condemned him and considered him as a participant in the terrorist crime.
The mother of one of the victims, Vign Murray, recounts the moments of her meeting with Hashem Abedi, saying that she went to a self-preservation position while she was sitting meters away from him and that she tried very hard not to get emotionally involved.
The grief-stricken mother adds that she closed her eyes to the killer of her son once or twice during the trial, and she tried not to think about the emotional impact of his actions, just as the master’s degree in counterterrorism that she enrolled after the tragedy was a saving grace for her during the trial, and also indicated that she made a conscious effort too enter a professional area and maybe this was a coping mechanism that she used.
The experience of the victims’ members in meeting those accused of killing their children, siblings and fathers is not an easy matter, especially since the incident was collective and harmed the country as a whole, and it sent very negative messages and deepened the problem of extremism and atonement that does not differentiate between one environment and another.
