Terror attacks are harder to detect than ever before amid a rising tide of hatred, Shabana Mahmood has admitted.
Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, who was on bail for an alleged rape, was shot dead by police as he targeted the place of worship on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Al-Shamie called 999 claiming responsibility for the attack, after driving at people in his car outside the synagogue, and then attacked others with a knife and tried to storm it, wearing a fake suicide belt.
Ms Mahmood said: “The reality is, we now face a domestic terrorist threat in this country that is more complex, less predictable and harder to detect than ever before.
“That threat will never be defeated unless we address the hate that fuels it.”
Two heroes Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, died in the attack as they tried to stop the Islamist.
Security guard Mr Daulby suffered fatal gunshot wounds fired by police at Al-Shamie as he stood behind the front door of the synagogue with others.
Mr Cravitz was among a group of people who tried to prevent Al-Shamie from storming the synagogue.
Ms Mahmood told MPs: “This attack has raised questions that must be answered:
“About the security that we provide to our Jewish community…
“About how we address a rising tide of antisemitism…
“About how we bring communities together, rather than allowing some to separate off into dark corners…
“Including how we tackle the continuing threat of Islamist extremism, and those who are pulled towards its warped ideology.
“But, at the same time, we must not let this attack defeat us nor forget who we really are.
“Because the real face of this country was not that of the vile monster who conducted this attack it was those who stood up to him and saved their fellow worshippers and the emergency services who sprinted towards danger to bring the attack to an end.”
Ms Mahmood said the Government has “stepped up” efforts to tackle antisemitism in schools, universities and the NHS since the Manchester terror attack.
Labour MP for Warrington North, Charlotte Nichols, asked the Home Secretary to “outline if there is any work taking place into misogyny as a risk factor for, or nexus into, other forms of extremism within our anti-terrorism framework”.
Ms Mahmood told MPs that Jihad Al-Shamie’s contact with the police is the subject of an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation.
“Once we have that part of the IOPC’s work completed, I will be able to give much more detail about the exact nature of those alleged offences and why he was dealt with in the way that he was, and if there are any wider lessons to be drawn from that,” Ms Mahmood told the Commons, adding that “the nexus of misogyny with extremism is something that this Government takes very seriously”.
Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, asked: “Let’s be realistic, there are some parts of some communities who don’t integrate, so will the Government say unequivocally that if you want to come and live here, you must think of yourself primarily as British?”
Ms Mahmood said MPs could “unite around and agree that it’s very important that everybody who comes to this country, makes it their home, chooses to raise their family here, commits themselves to being the best of British”.
The Home Secretary said there was a “question here to be asked about this attacker, who had all of the benefits, who came here as a small child, and was a naturalised British citizen whilst he was still a minor” but added she did not “want it to be the case that we allow the actions of a minority to make us believe that our majority are not proud of being British”.