I’m a Sikh MP. Here’s why we should all heed the words of Henry Nowak’s father
As a nation we face a choice: either follow the far-right rhetoric of hate and division, or unite under our values of decency and determination
-
Jeevun Sandher is Labour MP for Loughborough
Like you, I was horrified when I watched the video of Henry Nowak’s death. I cannot imagine what his family are going through.
He was 18 years old. I think of my family members about the same age as Henry, with their whole lives ahead of them. I know how devastated I would feel if they were murdered.
Like you, I utterly condemn Vickrum Digwa. He is a murderer. We all condemn him. I am glad the Independent Office for Police Conduct will investigate what happened at the scene so we can learn any lessons needed to ensure it never happens again. We should acknowledge that a kirpan was not used in this horrific attack, and there is a settled law around wearing them.
And like you, I am appalled but not surprised to see Nigel Farage and other hard-right politicians use this moment to try to divide us in anger against one another. On Tuesday morning, Farage tried to pit white Britons against non-white Britons. He tried to drive a wedge through the communities in which we all live.
Farage called for “pure cold rage” and he got it. Violent protests on our streets with Reform’s friend, Tommy Robinson, getting in on the act. Eleven police officers were injured.
But also, like you, I have seen a better Britain in the wake of this horror embodied by the grace of Henry’s family. Outside court, his father, Mark Nowak, said: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred or tension. We want his story to make our streets safer for everyone.”
Amid inconceivable grief, Nowak called for us to offer grace to one another. Grace that lifts us up from the horror of this moment and asks us: how can we live up to the best traditions of our nation? Our nation that is made up of different communities who may look and sound different from one another, but who come together as one people.
The contrast between Farage and Nowak speaks to the fundamental choice before this nation. The two paths that now lie before us. The first path rejects the grace of the Nowak family. Through tech-inspired hate, rightwing agitators turn the frustration of those who cannot pay their bills into fury. They blame the problems of the nation on “those people over there”. The ones who look and maybe sound different.
As Nowak has said: “As the KC for the prosecution summed up in court, this is not a case about Sikhism. This is not a case about racism. This is a case about murder.” But, instead, Farage and Tommy Robinson try to pit us against one another. They push collective punishment where there should be justice. And with Digwa’s arrest and conviction, justice has been rightly served.
But there is a second path of national unity and grace that defines our nation at its best, where different communities come together as one people, with a common set of values and an intertwined culture; where we offer grace to one another, live with one another and, at brutal moments like this, mourn together as one.
This second path lives up to the best traditions of this nation forged in the second world war and its aftermath. When people who looked and sounded different came together to defeat fascism, and built a common set of values that sit as the foundation stone of our United Kingdom.
Values of unity, decency and determination that led us to victory then and guide us today. Our nation stood together against the far right then, and we must stand together again now.
Our modern nation, born in that moment of fire and peril is one we are still perfecting today. Our culture continues to evolve in polite queues, raucous pints and debating The Traitors. We’ll be celebrating our national football teams this month whether we wear a turban or not. And, at moments like this, our different communities and our singular nation stand together in grief for Henry Nowak.
The grace of Henry Nowak’s family lives up to the best traditions of this nation. His father’s words are a testament to our values and an eternal truth: together we will meet this moment, divided we won’t.
-
Jeevun Sandher is Labour MP for Loughborough
-
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.