26-year-old man convicted for the murder of British lawmaker David Amess

Ali Harbi Ali, a young British national of Somali origin, has been declared guilty of the murder of Conservative MP David Amess and of preparing acts of terrorism, the BBC reported on April 11.

Pictured: Several high-profile Conservative Party politicians assist at a requiem mass in memory of David Amess at Westminster Cathedral.

The jury at Central Criminal Court in London, the BBC reports, only took 18 minutes to convict the young man.

“Sir David Amess was a beloved colleague, public servant and friend who championed the city of Southend in everything he did,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on Twitter after the ruling. “My thoughts today remain with Julia, the Amess family and all those who knew and loved him”.

The young man from North London, described as a supporter of the Islamic States, claims that he attacked Amess due to his parliamentary vote in support of airstrikes in Syria.

The BBC has described the case a "textbook radicalisation" while The Guardian writes that the British Somali community has emphatically condemned Ali Harbi Ali's actions.

“Some media were purposely trying to focus the ethnicity of the suspect rather than the crime and were creating a poisonous ‘us and them’ narrative,” declared a Somali community leader to The Guardian.

Further investigation has revealed that Ali Harbi Ali also planned attacks on other British Members of Parliament, including Conservative cabinet member Michael Gove.

Ali's list of potential targets did not limit themselves to Conservative politicians. Labour MP Jess Phillips was also named during the trial as personalities the young man was researching before settling with Amess.

On October 15th 2021, the United Kingdom was shocked by the news that Sir David Amess, Conservative Party Member of the Parliament for Southend West, was slain while attending a constituency meeting in a church hall in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Representatives from all across the political spectrum have gathered to pay tribute to Amess. Pictured are Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Labour Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer and Ian Blackford of the Scottish National Party during a memorial service.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson remembered Amess as a politician with a “remarkable record on behalf of the vulnerable and the voiceless”, according to the BBC.

The BBC also reported that Labour leader Keir Starmer, on the other hand, called it “a dark and shocking day” and that “the whole country will feel it acutely”.

Amess was 69 when he passed away. He had been MP for Southend West since 1997 and before that, he stood in the House of Commons for Basildon from 1983 to 1997. In total, he served in parliament for 38 years.

The MP from Southend West was known to be a staunch conservative Catholic, with controversial views on abortion, LGBT rights, and capital punishment. Amess also backed environmental causes such as the support of animal welfare and the ban on foxhunting.

Amess was also an ardent supporter of Brexit, calling being part of the European Union a “loss of sovereignty” and leaving it a “lifetime opportunity to take back control of the country”.

This is not the first time in recent years a British lawmaker has tragically died. In 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by a white supremacist during a meeting with her constituents outside a library in West Yorkshire.

Brendan Cox, widower of late MP Jo Cox, shared on Twitter his thoughts about the death of David Amess.

Ali Harbi Ali was detained in relation to the case soon after. The young man had been linked to Muslim extremism in the past.

Like in Jo Cox's case, the murder of David Amess has been a consequence of the rising polarization seen in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

An April 11 piece in The Guardian begs the question if Ali was white, like Jo Cox's murderer, race and ethnicity would probably not be put front and center as in this case.

The idea that political divisions could end up in violence is disturbing for a society that has always thought of itself as tolerant.

Among the tributes that have appeared for David Amess in the following days is this mural in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, the city where he was fatally wounded.

People of many backgrounds have expressed their rejection of the attack and support to the friends and relatives of the conservative lawmaker. Pictured is a member of the Anglo-Iranian community in the UK paying her respects.

However, one of the most surprising tributes came from Queen Elizabeth herself.

The Queen granted city status to the town of Southend-on-the-Sea, in Essex, as a memorial to the late MP as it was an initiative that was very close to his heart.

The case of David Amess has been solved and friends and family hopefully can start to heal now. However, the political and religious extremism that led a young man to murder is something that sadly still lacks resolution.