Akram's brother Gulbar claimed the assailant was suffering from "mental health issues." There may be a kernel of truth in that statement, but it has the effect of minimizing his actions. Whatever his mental condition, Akram possessed the mens rea to formulate and executed a terrorist attack by taking hostages at a synagogue. He was able to travel across the Atlantic to a specific destination, obtained weaponry, chose a specified target and found a way to gain access to it.
Akram chose to go to the Fort Worth area because it is where Aafia Siddiqui is being held in a federal facility. He also chose a synagogue as his target because Siddiqui despises Jews and has claimed the charges are a Jewish conspiracy and demanded that prospective jurors have their DNA tested to determine if they have an Israeli or Zionist background. That the FBI would claim that Akram's act do not pertain to the Jewish community are utterly absurd. In so doing the FBI is also minimizing Akram's actions. They also minimize the anti-Semitic underpinnings of al Qaeda of which Siddiqui was a part and with whom Akram was in solidarity.
There must remain a suspicion if the perpetrator were a white supremacist there would be far less hesitation in declaring such actions to be anti-Semitic. If one wants to truly fight anti-Semitism then it must be called out unreservedly regardless of religious and ethnic origin of the perpetrator.
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