New details have been revealed about Malik Faisal Akram’s activities in the days leading up to the Texas synagogue hostage standoff, including a “heated exchange” he got into at a nearby mosque.
Synagogue standoff ends well
On Saturday, January 15, Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas was the scene of an 11-hour standoff with police.
Four people were held hostage by a 44-year-old British national, before Malik Faisal Akram was killed by police. Thankfully, all the hostages survived. Akram was one of the new arrivals welcomed by Joe Biden in December.
A full 10 days before the attack, the unstable immigrant “was thrown out of a mosque” for displaying what fellow Muslims called “erratic behavior.” As related by Khalid Hamideh, chief legal counsel of the Islamic Center of Irving, “He was hostile because he was told that he would have to leave the mosque, that he couldn’t spend the night.”
Apparently, they didn’t report him to authorities though. If they had, the synagogue incident could have been avoided.
His hostages agree that Akram wasn’t acting very stable. They described his behavior as “increasingly belligerent and threatening.” The jihadist “waffled at times between being apologetic and making anti-Semitic remarks.”
Because the whole thing happened at a Jewish synagogue, the FBI has no choice. They’re investigating the standoff as “a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted.” They still won’t say that the Christmas Parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin – where White Christians were targeted – was an “act of terror” or even a “hate crime,” because the terrorist happens to be Black.
Akram had motivation
From what they’ve been able to piece together, so far, “Akram was motivated by a desire to see the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year federal prison sentence in Fort Worth.”
He thought taking Jews hostage in their own synagogue would get her sprung. One thing is certain, the “incident has put Jewish communities across the United States on edge.”
Nobody knows for sure how Akram made it to the Texas synagogue after landing in New York. Not a single U.S. security list had his name on it, even though he was on the radar in London. “Akram was known to UK security services and had been the subject of a brief investigation in 2020,” a British official confirms.
The first thing they do know about his movements is that he “stayed the night of January 2 at OurCalling shelter in Dallas.” A “man” dropped him off but “stayed about 15 minutes with him inside before departing.” Then, “between January 6 and 13, Akram spent three nights at Union Gospel Mission Dallas.” Shelter CEO Bruce Butler notes, “we were a way station for him. He had a plan. He was very quiet. He was in and out.”
When he visited the Irving mosque, he “became upset after being told he couldn’t sleep inside the building.” Akram “became agitated and almost confrontational, telling the folks there that you’ll be judged by the Lord Almighty for, you know, not helping out a fellow Muslim brother.”
He calmed them down enough to keep them from calling the cops by returning the next day to apologize. “Akram returned the next day, apologized for his previous behavior and prayed without any disorderly conduct.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, similar attacks are on the rise. While most “anti-Semitic incidents involve harassment and vandalism, assaults have also happened, with at least six turning deadly since 2016.” The most recognized incident was the 2018 mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.
