MANCHESTER — The moment a Muslim man and an elderly Jewish woman prayed together at a makeshift memorial in Manchester two days after Monday night’s concert attack has captured people’s attention.
Renee Rachel Black who is Jewish and Sadiq Patel, a Muslim, traveled together to Manchester from Blackburn to pay their joint respects to the 22 people who lost their lives in Monday’s terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert.
Both Patel and Black are members of the Blackburn Darwen Interfaith Forum, an organization which was launched in December 1999 according to its website.
As Black began to cry, Patel comforted her; “What can you say?” Black said when asked about her reaction to the terror attack.
Black, who describes herself as one of the few remaining Jewish people in Blackburn, said she considers Patel “a very good friend.”
Earlier Wednesday, Amber Rudd, the British Home Secretary, said the 22-year-old behind the deadly bombing was known to security services. Police named him as Salman Abedi, a British-born national of Libyan descent.
Community comes together
On Tuesday evening, hundreds attended a vigil outside Manchester City Hall in honor of the victims.
“We will stand together to say that this city is greater than the force that aligns itself against it,” David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, told the crowd.
“We are sending a signal not just to Manchester, but across the world that you can not defeat us because love in the end is always stronger than hate.”
