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Texas synagogue jihadi ‘literally thought that Jews control the world’

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This idea comes straight out of his Islamic environment, as I explained here.

“Texas rabbi details standoff: Gunman ‘literally thought that Jews control the world,’” Forward, January 17, 2022:

COLLEYVILLE, Texas — During the nearly 11 hours he was held hostage inside Congregation Beth Israel on Saturday, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker focused on what he’d learned in security workshops — “Do whatever you have to do to get out,” he said — and on making sure that the gunman saw him and the three other congregants inside the synagogue as human beings.

But Cytron-Walker was able to steal brief moments for reflection, silently praying the Sh’ma and offering the Hashkiveinu: “Grant, O God, that we lie down in peace, and raise us up, our guardian, to life renewed. Spread over us the shelter of your peace.”

As the hours passed and Malik Faisal Akram, the British gunman, became increasingly agitated, Cytron-Walker saw an opportunity to escape. One hostage had been released earlier in the day, and Cytron-Walker told the two men who remained with him to run for a fire door before throwing a chair at the assailant and sprinting after them.

“It was really a matter of looking and waiting for an opportunity where all of us could go and no one would be left behind,” Cytron-Walker said in an interview with the Forward on Monday morning.

Cytron-Walker said that Shabbat morning services had been interrupted by a man knocking on the synagogue’s door asking for help. The rabbi let the man in and made him tea, hoping to learn more about what had brought him to the Reform shul in a quiet Dallas suburb, before returning to lead services.

During the Amidah, a silent prayer, Cytron-Walker had his back turned to Akram and heard a distinctive click.

“I was a little suspicious when I heard that click but I was hoping it wasn’t an actual gun,” Cytron-Walker said. “I went over to him — where he and I could just have a conversation — and that’s when he pulled the gun on me.”

Akram’s first demand was to speak to Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, the leader of Central Synagogue in New York City, who he believed could free Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist imprisoned on terrorism charges at a facility near Beth Israel.

“This was somebody who literally thought that Jews control the world,” Cytron-Walker said. “He thought he could come into a synagogue, and we could get on the phone with the ‘Chief Rabbi of America’ and he would get what he needed.”…

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