Texas hostage siege: Malik Faisal Akram’s motive probed as rabbi recounts synagogue attack

The FBI has faced widespread criticism for its assertion that the hostage crisis was not an act of anti-Semitism.

Among the critics was South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who tweeted Sunday: “It is very disturbing to hear from the FBI they do not believe the hostage taker’s demands had anything to do with the Jewish faith.”

Referencing reports that Akram mentioned jailed Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, Mr Graham added: “Apparently the FBI believes the hostage-taker randomly selected a synagogue to demand the release of al-Qaeda operative and facilitator Aafia Siddiqui.

“I hope the FBI will reconsider the statement because it is well known that at her trial Siddiqui, also known as ‘Lady al-Qaeda,’ was a raging anti-Semite who demanded that jurors be genetically tested for Jewish blood.”

Even with its liberal gun laws, Texas does not allow foreign citizens who are not US residents to legally purchase guns. Given that Akram reportedly arrived in the US two weeks ago, it’s unclear how he obtained a weapon.

During a visit to a food bank in Philadelphia this weekend, President Joe Biden suggested one theory after cautioning that officials do not yet have all the facts.

“Allegedly the assertion was he got the weapons on the street,” Mr Biden said. “He purchased them when he landed and it turns out there apparently were no bombs that we know of.”

According to CBS, no explosives had been found at the synagogue (as of 12.17pm Central Time on Sunday). Akram had reportedly claimed to have bombs set up in unknown locations.

An official told CBS that Akram had joined the synagogue service on Saturday by claiming to be a homeless man. Mr Biden also said he had been told the hostage-taker spent his first night in the US in a homeless shelter.

The tight-knit Congregation Beth Israel traces its roots back to a gathering organized over 20 years ago by a handful of families who were new to the area.

“It was a Jewish holiday and we were just feeling kind of isolated and unsure who else was living here that was Jewish,” Anna Salton Eisen, a founder and former president of Congregation Beth Israel, said Sunday.

Since that start in 1998, the congregation in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville has grown to about 140 families, built its own synagogue and hired a rabbi known throughout the area for building bridges with other faiths.

Eisen said she has been bowled over by the intensity of the support the congregants have gotten during the hostage ordeal, but that she also has gotten a “painful awakening” that “our history is now going to be changed.”

The Associated Press has more:

Akram was known to the UK’s MI5 security service prior to his attack on a Texas synagogue,The Independent understands.

Questions are mounting over how the British national, who also had previous criminal convictions, was able to obtain a US visa and travel to his target.

It is not known when he first came onto MI5’s radar, and he is not believed to have been considered an imminent security threat.

Akram was also known to local police in Lancashire for previous criminal offences, and in 2001 had been banned from Blackburn Magistrates’ Court after ranting about the 9/11 terror attacks.

Speaking to Sky News, the attacker’s brother Gulbar Akram questioned how the incident had been allowed to unfold.

“He’s known to police, got a criminal record,” he said. “How was he allowed to get a visa and acquire a gun?”

The Independent’s Lizzie Dearden has more:

Authorities have said Akram, a British national from Lancashire, arrived in the US at New York’s JFK airport two weeks ago on a tourist visa.

But the circumstances that brought him to America remain unclear. London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement that its counter-terrorism police were liaising with US authorities about the incident.

A chance remark caught on the livestream of the early part of the attack gives one additional detail about Akram’s life.

“Don’t f***ing cry over me, okay?” he tells a negotiator. “I left six beautiful kids. I didn’t cry... my heart has become stone.”