On Saturday, January 15, 2022, Malik Faisal Akram, a Jihadist British national of Pakistani descent, held the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and three other constituents hostage for nearly 11 hours. Miraculously all of the hostages escaped unharmed and Akram was shot dead by an FBI SWAT team.
According to ongoing investigations, in the weeks prior to the siege, Akram searched online for influential rabbis in America and for gun pawnshops. He also took interest in Radical Muslim terrorist Aafia Siddiqui who was convicted in 2010 of trying to kill U.S. soldiers and is serving an 86-year-prison sentence in federal prison.
Following his search, Akram set his sights on a Jewish synagogue near the federal prison in Fort Worth where Siddiqui was held, as well as on Rabbi Angela Buchdahl of New York City’s Central Synagogue, who has been named as one of the most influential Jewish people in America in various online lists.
During the hostage crisis, Akram forced Colleyville Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker to call Rabbi Buchdahl several times demanding Siddiqui be released from prison. Akram believed in the antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling the government and thought that making the demand to a Rabbi will get Siddiqui released. At one point he said "I’m coming to you because I know President Biden will do things for the Jews."
During the siege, Akram was heard ranting on a Facebook livestream about Jews and Israel, as well as demanding the release of Siddiqui. Akram also called his brother in Britain stating he came "to die" and he was "opening the doors for every youngster in England to enter America and f–k with them!".
In 2021, a local councilor in Britain reported Akram to law enforcement agencies for threatening to "kill and bomb Jews". The councilor was astonished to find that no further action was taken by authorities.
Akram was also investigated in 2020 by Britain’s domestic security agency MI5 after spending 6 months in Pakistan. The investigation was shut down after just over a month due to a lack of evidence of radicalization. This allowed Akram to travel to the United States without being flagged.
On top of all that, in 2016 he was referred to 'Prevent', a Britain counter extremism police program which investigate extremism in order to prevent violent attacks, but 'Prevent' couldn’t find any evidence Akram was dangerous.
Within hours of the attack Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the 10-hour hostage siege a 'terrible and antisemitic act of terrorism' - but it took the FBI almost 48 hours to backtrack their original announcement the attack wasn’t related to antisemitism and come to the same obvious conclusion.
Jews represent just over 2 percent of the U.S. population but account for nearly 60% of all US religious hate crimes. Despite this staggering statistic, members of Congress, the White House, Federal agencies, the media, and social media have been gaslighting Jews into believing antisemitism might not be the prevailing reason Malik Faisal Akram targeted a synagogue. BUT it's not that complicated - it's antisemitism.
This incident also raises the question of why various American civil rights groups, specifically the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) advocate for the release of the same Jihadi terrorist as Malik Faisal Akram did?