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Hostage situation at Beth Israel Synagogue in Texas
- Thread starter nilbog
- Start date
Not only terrorists are trying to get her free. Noted Jew hater Linda Sarsour.
Fuck this islamophobic shit trying to divide our communities. Linda and CAIR have come out in support of the Jewish community and the Rabbi at this synagogue in support of the Muslim community. Fuck off, seriously.
You're a liar dude. Fuck off with your divisiveness.Not only terrorists are trying to get her free. Noted Jew hater Linda Sarsour.
There was some controversy a few years ago. You can Google it if you want.
CAIR fucked up immensely when they gave platform for this stupidity but none of those things are true.
They are however well known right wing taking points against Muslims. So is calling Linda Sarsour a terrorist.
Glad everyone got out safe. Here in California there is less fear of lone gunman storming a synagogue but every holiday service there's always tons of security so I imagine it's a lot more tense in a place like Texas.
As someone who is both Jewish and "far left," when those talking points get regurgitated it's a huge red flag lol.
Texas Hostage Taker Identified as British Citizen Who Traveled to U.S. in Recent Days
Malik Faisal Akram, 44 years old, traveled to the U.S. from Britain recently and died after a standoff with law enforcement Saturday at a Colleyville, Texas, synagogue.
www.wsj.com
As far as I can tell this included the woman in the post and primarily had to do with support for Farrakhan - who I hope I don't need to explain is an antisemite.
I don't know if she explained herself, but this was national news and was not limited to right wing news sources. So I don't really blame anyone for coming away with the impression she was an antisemite when major national news said she had to step down from the Womens March for exactly that reason (and no, it doesn't seem to be about Israel - which this forums loves making any and all accusations of antisemitism about).
Edit: on topic - absolutely shocked everybody appears to be safe. thank goodness
Like mainstream media gives a flying fuck about Palestinian voices. Lets not joke around. The whole Farrakhan thing happened because the co-founder attended a Farrakhan speech and posted picture with him. That was incredibly stupid imo, but had nothing to do with Linda Sarsour. They stepped down because of the controversy because that is indeed terrible to have your co-chair be associated with Farrakhan. The Women's March did not vet all of their people properly. But, that absolutely does not mean Women's March or Sarsour herself are anti-semetic, especially not like that banned poster said "NOTED JEW HATER LINDA SARSOUR". That is a rightwing talking point.
staff post - stay on topic
Oh my god, this place is within walking distance of my office and I've actually attended a service there. I'm glad nobody was hurt but the bad guy.
I'm always a bit mixed on the assailant getting killed. Sometimes it leaves too many questions unanswered. At least in this case we appear to know the motives…and of course I had that post written, got distracted and now there's a weird update about some teenagers in custody?
…sorry.
Hate to be the guy that tries to make it about him (like every shooting thread, " I was just 3 towns over 2 years ago" etc) but I was shocked to read that the guy is from my home town in the North West of England.
His family have said he released all hostages of his own accord and had mental health issues, the FBI are apparently flying out to speak with the family
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
His family have said he released all hostages of his own accord and had mental health issues, the FBI are apparently flying out to speak with the family
Hostage-taker shot dead in Texas named as Blackburn man Malik Faisal Akram
Live updates as the hostage-taker shot dead in Texas named as Blackburn man Malik Faisal Akram.
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
Ah I didn't realize the assailant got killed? I guess I meant no hostages harmed. I assumed it was because negotiators did their job, but it seems they escaped?
Hate to be the guy that tries to make it about him (like every shooting thread, " I was just 3 towns over 2 years ago" etc) but I was shocked to read that the guy is from my home town in the North West of England.
His family have said he released all hostages of his own accord and had mental health issues, the FBI are apparently flying out to speak with the family
Hostage-taker shot dead in Texas named as Blackburn man Malik Faisal Akram
Live updates as the hostage-taker shot dead in Texas named as Blackburn man Malik Faisal Akram.
How does a British citizen with mental health issues, travel to the USA and purchase weapons?
My honest guess, because we don't have a travel ban with England, (I don't think) right now, he could have taken a flight over easy, and previously could have purchased a gun in England via their own regulations. He has it pulled apart and put in his luggage that's loaded on the plane, not the one in the cabin, and then sets about doing his actions. Mental health issues do not mean you can't fly unless you did some dangerous stuff previously, or committed some sort of act on the plane to have you thrown on a do not fly list.
No he definitely bought the gun out there. Unless he bought it from the black market obviously. I didn't realise that would be so easily done in New York where he flew too. Maybe the streets of Texas are more accommodating of off the book gun transactions.
Illegally obtaining a gun is not hard at all, in any state in the USA. Hell, he might have been able to get it legally. Never know here in the US.
There weren't many people inside the synagogue when the man, identified Sunday by the FBI as Malik Faisal Akram, 44, a resident of Great Britain, walked in and turned life upside down. Most congregants were in their own homes on Zoom, prevented by the pandemic from gathering in one room and embracing each other and their traditions of worship.
Those who came to the building — now Akram's four hostages — included an elderly man in fragile health, two other congregants and their leader, Cytron-Walker, whom the temple had hired in 2006, two years after it opened its own building, seven years after a group of 25 families who had tired of traveling half an hour or more to the nearest synagogue decided to build their own community.
And now, one more person in the building, this stranger, threatening violence, and, according to law enforcement officials, brandishing a gun and what he said were explosives.
Akram entered Beth Israel by knocking on a glass door and pretending to be looking for shelter, he said on the live stream of the morning service.
Akram said he liked Rabbi Charlie. "I can see they're good guys," he said on the live stream, apparently speaking with negotiators. "They let me in. I didn't look nice. They let me in. I said, 'Is this a night shelter?' and they let me in. And they gave me a cup of tea. So I do feel bad."
The rabbi opened the door, Akram said: "It's a glass door. I made a knock on it. He let me in. And I go, Oh, my word. Because I did pray. Before everything, I did pray, I said God . . . I don't want to shoot anyone to get in."
Akram had come from across the ocean, arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy airport on Dec. 29, according to law enforcement officials, and he said he had spent 16 hours somewhere in the synagogue's area, "walking around with what I have in my bag, and with my ammo." If he'd been confronted by a police officer, he said, "he was gonna die. . . . He would have gotten shot in the head, straight away."
Akram chose this place, according to people who heard him on the live stream, because it appeared to be the closest assemblage of Jews to a federal facility in Fort Worth where an American-educated Pakistani convicted terrorist is serving an 86-year sentence for shooting at U.S. soldiers and FBI agents.
Akram wanted Aafia Siddiqui released. He wanted to see her, after which, he said, he and she — "my sister," he called her, though her relatives say they were not related — would rise together to Jannah, the Muslim paradise where the faithful are taken after Judgment Day.
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Twice during the negotiations, Akram pushed Cytron-Walker to phone a rabbi at New York's Central Synagogue to convey his demand that Siddiqui be freed. That rabbi, Angela Buchdahl, said she called police. Federal and local authorities provided security for her and her synagogue as a precaution, according to law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
Inside Beth Israel, the talks were primarily between Akram and Cytron-Walker, who was keenly aware of the threat that his and all American Jewish institutions faced. Synagogues are targets and their leaders now routinely train for the worst.
"We know that some people just don't like us," Cytron-Walker said in his final sermon of 2021. "Antisemitic attacks over the past couple weeks include a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, a hateful attack on a Hanukkah party bus in London, and multiple cases of vandalism worldwide. We know that antisemitism is out there."
Cytron-Walker had emphasized building relationships with other faiths throughout his 16 years at Beth Israel, Eisen said. Every year, he helped organize "Peace Together," an interfaith walk with churches and mosques.
As welcoming as he was, Cytron-Walker made security "very much a part of the congregational culture" at Beth Israel, Drazin said. The rabbi did not start meetings without announcing where the exits were, she said, and synagogue leaders had gone through active-shooter training.
On Aug. 22, security experts from the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit that works with Jewish congregations to prepare for attacks, visited Beth Israel and met with Cytron-Walker, inspecting the building's perimeter, reviewing safety measures and practicing drills on how to behave in the event of a shooting.
During that training, Stuart Frisch taught the rabbi and about 25 Beth Israel members how to identify behavioral cues that could lead to violence. It was the third course the Secure Community Network had led at the synagogue in the past year.
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But at the synagogue, things were not going well. "In the last hour of our hostage crisis, the gunman became increasingly belligerent and threatening," Cytron-Walker said in a statement released late Sunday. He credited the training he'd had for helping him know how to act and when to flee.
Shortly after 9 p.m., the remaining three hostages emerged from the building.
At 9:15 p.m., a side fire door at Beth Israel opened, and under the harsh white lights that police had trained on the building, a man poked his head out, his handgun preceding him out the door.
As a dog barked, several men in camouflage crept closer to the building. Shots rang out, then a big blast. At the security perimeter, police shouted to reporters to hit the ground.
At Beth Israel, there was a lull, then more shots. Then silence. And after a minute, an armored police vehicle began to pull back from the house of worship.
Akram was dead.
"There was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to surrender," his brother Gulbar wrote in a statement.
Much more in the second link.
Do we know he had mental health issues or is this just more stigmatizing of those who have mental health issues?
It's not hard to buy a gun in Texas. Private purchases don't require anything other than the money. To buy a gun from a licensed dealer, he would have had to show a state-ID.
Direct quotes from his family say he did however whether that's the case or not isn't confirmed
Also in our local paper today he was banned from our magistrate court in the aftermath of 9/11 for causing a commotion and repeatedly saying he wishes he was one of the terrorists on the planes that hit the world trade centre, seems some red flags been missed
Man shot dead in Texas was previously banned from Blackburn Magistrates for comments about 9/11
THE Blackburn man shot dead after holding four people hostage for over 10 hours was previously banned from the town’s magistrate court for ranting…
www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk
Direct quotes from his family say he did however whether that's the case or not isn't confirmed
Also in our local paper today he was banned from our magistrate court in the aftermath of 9/11 for causing a commotion and repeatedly saying he wishes he was one of the terrorists on the planes that hit the world trade centre, seems some red flags been missed
Man shot dead in Texas was previously banned from Blackburn Magistrates for comments about 9/11
THE Blackburn man shot dead after holding four people hostage for over 10 hours was previously banned from the town’s magistrate court for ranting…
Gotcha. I just see the sentiment that anyone who commits an abhorrent act has to have mental health issues often and it's incredibly frustrating.
That wasn't me presuming, it was based entirely on what his family said. I just assumed there would be more safeguards in place to stop people from certain issues being able to obtain a gun legally. Hence I guess he bought it in one of the many scenarios mentioned above, illegally.
That's fair.
It's only illegal because he was on a non-immigrant visa. Otherwise, private sales aren't illegal. And there's very little stopping people with mental illnesses from owning a gun legally outside of hospitalization. Having a mental illness doesn't mean one is violent.
Even the mental health piece would not keep him from purchasing a gun at a store, he'd just have to go through the waiting period. If he had no criminal record he'd be ok to buy a gun, him having mental health issues doesn't keep him from buying a gun. The background check they do is likely only criminal history in the United States.
I didn't imply it did, I just would expect more stringent checks for certain aspects of mental illness, though I accept that is a massive range of conditions.
Rabbi threw chair at gunman before he and other hostages escaped Texas synagogue: "It was terrifying"
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker said he and the two other remaining hostages were "terrified," especially during the last hour of the standoff Saturday night.
www.cbsnews.com
So turns out the Rabbi got all the hostages out.
Greatest chair toss this side of Malignant.
Rabbi threw chair at gunman before he and other hostages escaped Texas synagogue: "It was terrifying"
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker said he and the two other remaining hostages were "terrified," especially during the last hour of the standoff Saturday night.
So turns out the Rabbi got all the hostages out.
Greatest chair toss this side of Malignant.
Sorry couldn't help it
Rabbi threw chair at gunman before he and other hostages escaped Texas synagogue: "It was terrifying"
Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker said he and the two other remaining hostages were "terrified," especially during the last hour of the standoff Saturday night.
So turns out the Rabbi got all the hostages out.
Greatest chair toss this side of Malignant.
So the police didn't do much as usual?