West-hating sect attacked my Muslim pal

EXTREMISM in Manchester’s Libyan community is nothing new. I lived alongside many of my countrymen for 10 years during my time there, before I returned to Libya.

What I saw was troubling. Many who knew the Abedi family brought their extremist understanding of Islam with them. These ultra-conservative Muslims, known as Salafists, promote jihad across borders in an effort to spread Islam.

In Manchester, they applied for asylum because they had been opponents of Colonel Gaddafi, the brutal dictator.

It meant they got all of the benefits of living in Britain, but did not integrate into British society. A lot of Libyans considered Western life evil, so they kept themselves and their families isolated.

They took their kids to private Islamic schools and lived in tight-knit communities in Didsbury, Cheetam Hill and Whalley Range. They continued visiting mosques where Imams preached extremism and hatred of non-Muslims.

In 2007, a group of Libyan Salafists attacked one of my friends – they knocked on the door while we were listening to music and shouted that we were infidels.

They hit him with a large stick, cracking his skull open, because we were not as conservative as them and enjoyed Western culture. That was the moment I realised one of them, or somebody they knew, could take things to the next extreme. The bombing in Manchester proved this.