A man who is accused of stabbing several people in a Marks & Spencer department store in Burnley, England in December 2020 committed the knife attack because of his belief that the company funded the “persecution” of Palestinian Arabs by Israel, the prosecution told the jury in his trial, according to British media reports.
Munawar Hussain, 58, is alleged to have gone on what was described as an “anti-Israel rampage,” in the department store, stabbing a manager in the neck near her jugular vein and stabbing a customer in the arm. Hussain attempted to then stab the customer in the back after she fell to the ground, but his kitchen knife’s blade snapped off after it became lodged in the strap of the woman’s purse.
Hussain fled after committing the stabbings but was held down by a store security guard and members of the public outside the store. He was apprehended by police nearby. He is standing trial on two counts of attempted murder and wounding with intent.
The manager’s injuries included a collapsed lung and nerve damage. She described to police that the man who stabbed her was wearing a covid mask but his eyes “looked pure evil,” The Daily Mail reported.
“If I had fallen he would have killed me. I just thought 'this ****** is not having me, I've got three kids and he is not taking me away from my kids'... I'm lucky to be here,” she said in her statement.
After Hussain was arrested, police found a note he had written in Urdu that said ''O Israel, you are inflicting atrocities on Palestinians and Marks Spencer helping you financially.”
“He told the police that he had targeted Marks & Spencer deliberately because he believed Marks & Spencer funded Israel in what he described as its persecution of Palestine,” prosecutor Alex Leach told the jury. “He said that had his knife not broken he would have gone on to kill others. He said that he expected that the police might kill him and he intended to be a martyr.”
Hussain did not deny stabbing the women but claimed that his intentions were not to kill them. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of wounding with intent.
But the prosecution said it was “overwhelmingly clear” that he was motivated to commit a terrorist act and intended to kill his victims.