The Lady Al Qaeda Connection

US President Biden seems to open his mouth, but not always engage his brain first.

Malik Faisal Akram Wanted To Free Aafia Siddiqui

Take the terrorist incident in Texas, in which Mr Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn, North West England, flew to Texas, and took hostages in a Jewish synagogue, after buying a gun almost immediately upon arrival in the US. 

Now the town of Blackburn was once ex Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's old constituency, of which we have posted about before ... The current MP is Kate Hollern MP (Labour)., and the demographics of Blackburn in 2011 were at least 30.8% being people of ethnic backgrounds (Virtually all South Asian, with less than 1% Black/Caribbean). That figure for South Asians will have risen in the last decade.

This makes the area potentially fertile ground for radical Islam to find recruits, and in October 2021 four men (Mohammed Iftikhar Hanif, Jawaad Hussain, Asif Ali, and Adil Mota), all from Blackburn, were charged with “using threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred” in May 2021. 

Anti-Semitism In UK On The Rise ....

This included them driving through Jewish areas of London, in a car convoy decorated with Palestinian flags, with anti-Semitic abuse being shouted from at least one car, and the driver honking their car horn and screaming "Fuck the Jews... Fuck all of them. Fuck their mothers, fuck their daughters and show your support for Palestine. Rape their daughters and we have to send a message like that. Please do it for the poor children in Gaza.” 

There were also news reports at the same time that a senior London rabbi, Rabbi Rafi Goodwin was attacked by two youths near his Essex synagogue in the Limes Estate area, in which he suffered cuts to his head and around one eye, following the attack.

So the fact that Mr Akram also comes from there is not especially surprising, but the fact that he had an extensive criminal record, makes his successful entry in to the USA something of a surprise. I suspect that there are probably a lot of men in Blackburn (never mind the UK), who use the name Malik Faisal Akram, which may have been partially responsible for the US border force not picking him out. 

President Biden said about Akram:

'He purchased them [the gun] when he landed and it turns out there apparently were no bombs that we know of. ... Apparently he spent the first night in a homeless shelter. I don't have all the details yet so I'm reluctant to go into much more detail. I don't think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone who's been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged, why he was using anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments'.

Many Muslims Consider Israel A Terrorist State

Now lets be honest and admit that it doesn't take a genius (much less a US President), to be able work out why a Muslim terrorist would target a Jewish synagogue (and not for the first time) ....

• In 1982, there was an attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris, and the Muslim suspect was detained in Norway in 2020. 
• In 1985, Leon Klinghoffer a Jewish passenger was murdered aboard the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro. 
• In 2008 in the Mumbai, India, terrorist attacks included the Mariman House (a Chabad House). 
• In 2012, a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was attacked by an Islamist terrorist. 
• In 2015, a Kosher deli supermarket in Paris was attacked by ISIS supporter Amedy Coulibaly. 
• Also in 2015, there was an attack outside a synagogue in Denmark, 
• While in 2019, a synagogue in Halle, Germany was attacked by a 16-year-old Syrian boy and three other people. 

 

So Akram's attack on a Synagogue is just part of a regular and long history of Muslim terrorists attacking Jews and Jewish institutions ... so why this puzzlement from President Biden (and indeed other world leaders who seem to fear pinning the tail on the donkey)?

Mr Akram had also demanded the release of his 'sister' the 'Lady Al Qaeda,' Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving 86 years at FMC Carswell, New York, for the attempted murder of US military personnel, and who is also the poster girl of Jihadist Islamists worldwide. Mr Akram's claim that she was his 'sister' was based on the concept of brotherhood and sister hood in the Ummah (much like those black Americans who call each other 'brothers' or 'sisters', despite no familial relationship).

She is a Pakistani born neuroscientist, from a wealthy Pakistani family (Her father was an English-trained doctor. Her mother was a friend of former Pakistani president, general Zia ul-Haq. Her brother is a Houston architect. Her sister is a neurologist), who spent 11 years in the USA getting educated, only to have an arraigned marriage with an allegedly abusive Pakistani doctor. 

Two children later, and following  9/11, she informed her husband that she wished to return to Pakistan, as she apparently believed that the Americans were intending to 'abduct Muslim children and then convert them to Christianity'. This strange belief may be a sign of mental breakdown, but she was to start becoming radicalised even before returning to Pakistan, as she and her husband were both reportedly detained by the FBI for questioning in regard to that attack. Both were later released uncharged.

Some strange stories circulated after she divorced her husband (while still expecting her third child) - she had returned to the US again with her three children, before returning to Pakistan in December 2002, where she 'disappeared' months later:

• She 'disappeared' from the record for five years, for reasons that remain uncertain, but Islamists claim she was secretly held by the CIA and tortured during this time (although why they would then let her go is unexplained!).
• Some reports say that she was kidnapped but by whom differs - or she may have gone underground as an al-Queda sleeper.
• Other reports said that said she and her new husband were part of an al-Qaeda sleeper cell.
  
• She reportedly had remarried to Ali Abd'al Aziz Ali, (Ammar Al-Baluchi) a nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the Guantanamo detainee said to be a mastermind of the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001.
• She was placed on the FBI Seeking Information – Terrorism list; she remains the only woman to have been featured on the list.
• She was named as part of an alleged al-Qaeda diamond smuggling operation in Liberia.
• On July 18th, 2008 she was captured in Ghazni, Afghanistan, allegedly with handwritten notes detailing a “mass casualty attack” on several New York City spots, including the Empire State building.
• The story gets stranger, because the Afghans didn't secure her, and invited US Army officers to question her ... where according to an FBI criminal complaint she grabbed an Afghan Army officer’s M-4 rifle that was on the floor next to the curtain, and screamed, “Allah Akbar!” and, in English, “Get the fuck out of here!”, while shooting at and missing the officers who returned fire and hit her twice in the abdomen. She recovered from her wounds.
  

She was convicted two years later in a Manhattan federal court, of the attempted murder and assault on Americans for that attack, and sentenced to 86 years in prison. During her trial, Aafia Siddiqui demanded that every jury member get DNA tested to see if they were Jewish. 'I have a feeling everyone here is them [Jews], subject [them] to genetic testing… They should be excluded if you want to be fair,' she told a federal judge in 2010 .... The FBI was unable to get enough evidence to press any other charges.

All this has led to Islamists (and it has to be said some others), to think that this was a trumped up conviction. That in fact she should never have been detained, even if she is married into the family of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (It is alleged in Karachi, that any member of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's family deemed to be even "a 1% threat to US security" is being in American custody), so they say that the shooting (if it ever took place), was justified self defence.

So Mr Akram's demand for her release simply follows on from similar demands from other groups for her release:

• Following public rallies in Pakistan, in 2018, the Senate of Pakistan unanimously passed a resolution to take up the matter of Siddiqui’s freedom with the U.S., referring to her as “the Daughter of the Nation”. 
• Tehreek-e-taliban Pakistan carried out attacks in revenge for her detention. 
• al-Queda offered in 2011 to release Warren Weinstein in exchange for Siddiqui. 
• Algerian al-Queda offered to spare 39 foreign aid workers in 2013 in exchange for Siddiqui - they killed all 39. 
• Islamic state said that they had offered to exchange James Foley before beheading him in 2014. 
• In 2015 Kayla Mueller was killed by IS after offering to spare her for Siddiqui's release. 
• 2017 saw al-Queda kidnap Luke Somer to try and free Siddiqui.

This one will obviously run and run .....