Radical Islamists’ global threat must be tackled

Thousands of people were on Saturday glued to their screens watching a horrifying terrorist attack unfold before their eyes. The incident took place at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, when an Islamist extremist interrupted a livestream broadcast of a morning service performed by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker. The nerve-wracking near-11-hour hostage situation reminded the world that radical Islamism continues to pose a significant global threat and that it needs to be confronted wherever it is found.

Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year old British national of Pakistani origin, had flown from the UK to the US shortly before the attack with one thing on his mind: To free his “sister in Islam” Aafia Siddiqui — also known as Lady Al-Qaeda — who is serving an 86-year sentence in a US federal prison following her conviction for shooting at US troops in 2010. She was one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists prior to her arrest in Afghanistan in 2008. Siddiqui is married to the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Sept. 11 conspirator and murderer of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

Akram told his four hostages that he chose the synagogue because it was the closest one to where Siddiqui is being held. He threatened to kill them if she was not brought to him. “Once I have my sister here, let me tell you, I will not take these four guys out,” he said to the FBI negotiator over the phone.

Back in the English city of Blackburn, Akram attended Masjid-e-Irfan, a mosque linked to the Deobandis, which is a South Asian Islamist movement with a long history of ties to violence and extremism in both South Asia and the West, according to Sam Westrop, director of the counterextremism project at the Middle East Forum. He added that Akram was reportedly a member of Tablighi Jamaat, a Deobandi missionary organization. Siddiqui also came from a Deobandi family and worked with several Deobandi terrorist organizations.

In a phone conversation, Westrop reiterated the grave danger of this group. “For years, British authorities and journalists have been warning about the radicalism of Deobandi networks, with counter-extremism analysts noting that the movement controls over 40 percent of British mosques,” he said.

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