During the portion of my sabbatical pilgrimage in England the most horrendous tragedy struck in Manchester: A radicalized British born jihadist, Salman Abedi, wore his suicide bomb into the Ariana Grande concert at the stadium and detonated it following the last song. He knew what he was doing; the American pop star drew a diverse crowd of young and middle aged family members. Dozens were killed. Even more were wounded and traumatized. The city responded in heroic fashion and with the English stiff upper lip publicly gathered to share grief and declare its defiance against such violence. There they were together, people of all faiths. Nothing will divide or topple us. 

Being in England during this terrible event gave me a different perspective into the reality of the radicalized immigrants who nest in Britain and other European countries. England has long been a refuge for exiles and those fleeing repressive regimes. This included those fleeing Idi Amin's reign of terror in Uganda. And Libyans - the country of origin for the bomber - fleeing the repressive rule of Muammar Gaddifi. And here is the first thing that is missed, that the Libyans in England were there because the West sheltered them from a despot. And here is the second thing missed, those revolutionaries fighting against Gaddifi were also jihadis later to be aligned with ISIS. 

As the West pivoted on Gaddifi - first engaging in diplomatic trades, abandoning nuclear ambitions for the lifting of sanctions (hello Iran!), Tony Blair's famous "meeting in the desert," suddenly the exiles in England, those who opposed Gaddifi, came to be seen as a problem. But then, in Arab Spring, as movements to topple the old Arab strongmen proceeded and Gaddifi and Libya was one, the West - Britain and the U.S. - turned against Gaddifi. Those jihadis traveled from the UK to fight against Gaddifi. But they also travelled to Syria to fight against the government and support the revolutionaries (even as Russia and Syria hid behind the smokescreen of stomping out worldwide terrorism). 

And then, enraged with the West, seeing Britain as a patsy of the US, the radicalized jihadi broke one of the unwritten rules of being an exile in another country of safe-haven: You don't violate those who are extending you hospitality. And that's exactly what he did and that's what many others are now willing to do, to turn on those who provide them safe haven. And so a 22 year old Salman Abedi blows himself up in order to wreck carnage on the West from which he benefitted and came to deplore. His younger brother has been arrested for attempting the same. 

For an open and enlightened society among the English, a remarkably tolerant people when it comes to differences, a space where cities like London are 50% foreign born, this represents a relatively new and dire challenge. Most of those foreign immigrants are peaceful and wonderful contributors to the country of their new home. But among them are hidden cells of terror. A new vigilance has arisen. We are witnessing public pushback in things like BREXIT. 

In the tragedy itself heroism was in evidence all around, everywhere from the response of police and medical people to random people reaching out to the dying and wounded. One story is remarkable and has not been lost on anyone in Manchester.

After the explosion, the carnage, and the mass panic and stampede to get out of the stadium, a homeless man listening to the concert from outside ran into the stadium and began helping the dying and injured. He held one woman while she died in his arms. He shuttled children to parents and comforted the wounded. And now the people of Manchester, especially survivors, are trying to find a home for him. That's community, even if it takes a tragedy to create it. I