UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expressing shock that the 35-year-old Syrian who stabbed Jews at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur has an on-the-nose name.
"As a Muslim, I've never heard someone being called 'Jihad'."
— LBC (@LBC) October 3, 2025
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was 'very surprised' to hear the name of the Manchester synagogue attacker, but tells @NickFerrariLBC that was his name 'from birth'. pic.twitter.com/W4p6gzAolQ
This, of course, is a lie as we'll demonstrate in a minute.
Jihad Al-Shamie was arrested on Thursday for killing two Jewish worshippers and wounding several others. He was reportedly wearing a suicide belt when he was apprehended.
But social media users pointed out the very real fact that there are several people named Jihad in Mahmood's hometown of Birmingham.
very literally her neighbours. pic.twitter.com/lICQpYgRKQ
— Callum (@AkkadSecretary) October 3, 2025
According to Forebears, there are almost 300,000 Muslims with the name Jihad in the world, mostly in Saudi Arabia and Syria.
And Mahmood was raised in Saudi Arabia.
That's a lie. The name Jihad is popular in the Levant and amongst Palestinians due to the popularity of jihad against Israel during the several wars against the Jewish state.
— Khaled Hassan (@Khaledhzakariah) October 3, 2025
This woman was raised in Saudi Arabia.
There's absolutely no way she's never hearf of this name. This…
"This is a brazen lie," Hassan wrote.
As a non Muslim who just reads the news I've heard this name. It's fairly common. Why is Dora the Jihadi Explorer lying again here?
— Anna D. West 🇺🇸 (@SlimWiggy) October 3, 2025
Because that's what she does best, it seems.
The father of the boy who sued Tommy Robinson also Syrian is named Jihad . The lying toad would be well aware of this fact!
— Care_ren-not-Karen (@Kare56115) October 3, 2025
Source Daily Mail pic.twitter.com/mM5nQJc8XM
Despite saying this wasn't a name she was familiar with, Mahmoom went on to say Shamie was given that name at birth.
"It is my understanding that is the name he was born with. It is not a name that was adopted later in life or changed recently," she told Leading Britain's Conversation (LBC). That, of course, makes it worse. "Jihad Al-Shamie" translates to "the struggle of the Syrian," Shamie's country of birth. His parents named him that for a reason.
On Yom Kippur, we learned what that reason was.