Aafia Siddiqui and the Standoff at Congregation Beth Israel

By Jacob Siegel of The Scroll [View this email in your browser]( January 16, 2022 • Shevat 14, 5782 # [SPECIAL REPORT](#) An 11-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue on Saturday, in which the rabbi and three congregants were taken hostage, ended after an FBI rescue unit breached the building and all four were safely freed. The hostage-taker, UK citizen Malik Faisal Akram, is dead, though law enforcement has not yet confirmed the cause of death or given an official account of his motive.   There were, however, strong indications of the suspect’s motives in his references to a convicted terrorist with reputed ties to al-Qaida named Aafia Siddiqui. After entering the Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, the suspect was captured on a video that the congregation was using to livestream its services, demanding that the U.S. government release Siddiqui. The demand echoed a call made by leading Muslim American organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim advocacy group in the U.S., which has taken up Siddiqui’s cause. In the livestream, the hostage-taker referred to himself as Siddiqui’s brother, but Siddiqui’s lawyer later issued a statement denying that they were related. In addition to her conviction on terrorism related charges, Siddiqui was vocally anti-Jewish and once wrote a letter to Barack Obama, according to Deborah Scroggins’ 2012 book [Wanted Women]( in which Siddiqui urged the former president: “Study the history of the Jews. They have always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and made the ‘fatal’ error of giving them shelter … This why ‘holocausts’ keep happening to them repeatedly!” CAIR maintains that Siddiqui was unfairly convicted and has held numerous rallies calling for her release. Last November, CAIR co-hosted an event, along with the prominent progressive activist and former Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour, called “the campaign to free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.” In addition to being popular with American activists, Siddiqui’s plight, “plays an outsized role in jihadi folklore,” according to terrorism researcher [Seamus Hughes]( who notes that multiple Islamist organizations including ISIS and the Taliban have attempted to get her released.    A Pakistani neuroscientist, Siddiqui studied in the U.S. at Brandeis University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2008, after being detained in Afghanistan possessing what U.S. officials said were plans for mass-casualty attacks in the U.S., she was taken for questioning when she allegedly seized a weapon and opened fire on her interrogators. A federal judge found the “strength of the government’s case was overwhelming,” and she was sentenced to 86 years. During her trial in 2009, Siddiqui unsuccessfully petitioned the court to give jurors a DNA test to prove they were not Jewish. “This is a verdict coming from Israel and not from America. That’s where the anger belongs,” she said after her conviction.    Some media accounts of the still-developing story out of Texas have appeared to downplay the attack on the synagogue and its connection to anti-Jewish ideology. The [Guardian newspaper]( for instance, ran a story about the incident that placed the word “hostage” in quotation marks. The Associated Press, meanwhile, ran a story under the headline: “The FBI says the Texas synagogue hostage taker's demands were specifically focused on issue not connected to the Jewish community.” It’s not clear what issue they are referring to, but if it was freeing Aafia Siddiqui, as multiple other press accounts indicate, to characterize it as being “not connected” to the Jewish community would be highly misleading—an impression compounded by the fact that in its own story, the AP emphasized that Siddiqui made “rambling statements,” suggesting that she was mentally disturbed but made no mention of her numerous statements about Jews. Never to be outdone, Twitter, meanwhile, appears to be[promoting the campaign]( to “free Aafia Siddiqui”—encouraging people using its platform to read about the case.    —Jacob Siegel # # # # # # # # # # # # This email was sent to you by [Tablet Magazine](#) Tablet Magazine | P.O. Box 20079 | New York, NY 10001 [Remove me from this list]( | [Forward to a Friend]( You are receiving this email because you signed up at our website, www.tabletmag.com. Tablet Magazine P.O. Box 20079 New York, NY 10001 USA Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp [Mailchimp Email Marketing](