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21 January 2022

Texas synagogue attack shows corrosive power of anti-Semitism

Yes, there really are people who think the Jews control everything. That belief degrades all of society.

By Emily Tamkin

WASHINGTON, DC – A week ago, a rabbi and three others were taken hostage in a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. The hostage-taker was a British man by the name of Malik Akram. He was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist serving an 86-year sentence for attempting to murder US military personnel. During the siege, Akram spoke to the New York-based rabbi, Angela Warnick Buchdahl, about Siddiqui. After 11 hours, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker threw a chair at the hostage-taker, allowing the two remaining hostages (one had been released earlier) and himself to run to safety. Akram was shot and killed.

Afterwards, the FBI said the incident was not motivated by anti-Semitism – a ludicrous statement, which it later reversed. American Jews make up roughly 2 per cent of the US population. Akram did not accidentally stumble into a synagogue. 

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