National Review
And Now What?: Northern Ireland Edition
By Charles C. W. Cooke
June 9, 2026 9:16 AM
The BBC reports that:
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A man believed to be Sudanese has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a “brutal” knife attack in Belfast, police have said.
The man, in his 30s, remains in custody after the incident in north Belfast at about 22:30 BST on Monday.
Video circulating online shows a number of people, including one wielding a hurling stick, confronting the apparent attacker until the police arrived.
A man injured in the attack, aged in his 40s, is in hospital where his condition is described as serious.
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Later in the story, the BBC notes that:
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Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, Naomi Long, condemned the attack and said “there is no place for this kind of horrific violence in our community”.
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What does this mean? I’m not picking on Naomi Long, or on Northern Ireland. A lot of American politicians talk like this, too. What I’m asking is: why?
What, precisely, does Long think she’s conveying? Against whom is she arguing? The comedian John Cleese once pointed out that, for some reason, flight
attendants tend to emphasize the word “will” when informing the passengers that “the plane will soon be landing.” “The plane will soon be landing,” they
say, as if prepared for the passengers, in unison, to shout back, “oh no it won’t!” So it is with politicians’ responses to terrorist attacks. Presumably,
nobody thinks that Naomi Long is in favor of public beheadings. Nor is the desirability of public beheadings a live topic in Northern Ireland. So what
— or who — is her audience? “There is no place for this kind of horrific violence in our community” is, within this context, completely meaningless. It
was stipulated, tacitly, before anyone said a word.
What matters is what comes next. Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said, that he will have “absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like
this on our streets.” That’s good. But, again, what does he mean? As far as I can see, there are three options. The first option is that Britain intends
to rework its immigration process so that Sudanese would-be beheaders find it harder to get in. The second is that Britain does not intend to do that,
but that it intends to increase the use of the police to deal with would-be beheadings if and when they happen. The third is that Britons ought to consider
would-be beheadings an inevitability in an interconnected world, and to accept that the government’s only role is punishing their perpetrators after the
fact. One can construct a case for all of these options, but, in order to do so, one has to say more than that one has “absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent
scenes of violence.” Outside of the psych ward, that is a given. The material question is what, specifically, do you intend to do now?
In Naomi Long’s case, what came next was this:
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“I don’t think its helpful, for people to seize on this as yet another weapon, in the war that they wage on issues around immigration, I do not think it
is healthy and I do not think it is fair.”
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But that, too, doesn’t mean anything because it lacks a substantive argument. Why isn’t it “helpful”? What does “seize” mean? Why is complaining about
a Sudanese immigrant trying to behead someone in the street equivalent to wielding a “weapon” in “war”? What are the “issues around immigration,” and why,
if this isn’t indicative of anything bigger, were the words “yet another” used? Why isn’t it “healthy” or “fair” to inquire about this, or even to be angry?
Sometimes, the answer to these questions is that we need to wait for the details. But that doesn’t apply here, because, as Long and Starmer have already
conceded, “there is no place for this kind of horrific violence in our community” and the government will have “absolutely no tolerance for abhorrent scenes
of violence like this on our streets,” and, as such, there can be no extenuating circumstances that render the attack acceptable.
What Long and her friends really seem to mean is that the people of Northern Ireland ought to consider this an act of “horrific violence,” but then ask
no further questions about how it happened. Look through the responses and you will glean a list of acceptable discussion points. On the Allowed List are
the horror of the incident, the bravery of the citizens who intervened, the lamentable existence of knives on the British archipelago, and the kind demeanor
of the police and medical services. On the Not Allowed List is why a Sudanese lunatic was in Northern Ireland in the first place, attempting to behead
someone on the street. There may, somehow, be a good answer to that inquiry, but it won’t be satisfying to anyone in the community if it is accompanied
by a broad injunction to shut up.
When you import the third World, you become the Third World.
New York Post
Sudanese migrant arrested for allegedly trying to behead victim in middle of Northern Ireland street
By Chris Bradford
Published June 9, 2026
Updated June 9, 2026, 7:33 a.m. ET
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A Sudanese migrant has been arrested after a barbaric video shows someone seemingly trying to behead another man in the middle of a UK street in scenes likened to “something out of a horror movie.”
The horrific footage shows the blood-soaked knifeman pinning down his victim in Northern Ireland late Monday in an attack a local politician also branded “barbaric” and “medieval.”
The bloodied victim desperately kicked his legs before the knifeman repeatedly stabbed him in the head and neck, the video shared by Turning Point UK shows.
“Get off him you f–king rat!” one woman shouted as the deranged attacker showed off his weapon — as a man yelled, “He’s trying to cut his head off. He’s slicing his head off.”
Horrified locals rushed over — and one clobbered the attacker with a stick as others tried to free his grip on the victim.
The victim, an unidentified local man in his 40s, was left with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wounds to his back and face, police said of the “brutal” attempted murder.
Northern Ireland police initially said “a man in his 30s, believed to be Somalian, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder” before clarifying he was Sudanese, blaming the mix-up on the “fast time investigation.”
The suspect was living in the UK “under a five-year visa,” Gavin Robinson, the Democratic Unionist Party leader, told the House of Lords — calling for him to be “convicted and deported on the first flight out.”
Police are still unsure of of a motive for the barbaric attack, but so far have “no information to suggest that this was a terrorist-related incident,” Ryan Henderson, the assistant chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said in a press conference later Tuesday.
“However, I must stress, we are still at the early stages of our investigation,” he cautioned.
“This brutal attack has sent shockwaves through our communities, and I want to reassure all of our communities. Your safety is our priority.”
One resident told the Belfast Telegraph it was like “something out of a horror movie.”
“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, it’s shocking,” another told the outlet.
One woman told the BBC she heard screams outside — and then saw children gathered in the street.
“I was just absolutely petrified,” one woman said, revealing she had “never seen anything like it.”
Local council member Paul McCusker told the BBC that at least one local woman was also hospitalized “because of the stress of witnessing such a brutal attack.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the attack, describing it as “sickening” and said he had “no tolerance for abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”
Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson called it “barbaric” and “medieval.”
Henderson, the police chief, urged demonstrators to remain peaceful as calls for protests intensified.
“I want to stress that I absolutely understand that people will be feeling a range of emotions, from fear through to anger and more to have their voice heard… and if there are protests, we very much hope that they will be peaceful,” he said.
“And indeed, we would expect and hope that those people who may want to protest will allow people to go about their own lives.”
Locals will see an increased police presence in the area. “So my message is: please, if you’re feeling concerned or worried, please let us know,” Henderson said.
