Terrorism by any other name

That the attack by a lone gunman on Jewish worshippers at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was immediately labelled a “hostage-taking,” instead of a terror attack, highlights the blind spot that many people in authority and in the media have when it comes to violent anti-Semitism.

For nearly 24 hours during and following the incident, authorities refused to label the attack as terrorism — despite the fact that most of the evidence pointed in that direction.

To his credit, U.S. President Joe Biden eventually declared the incident a terrorist attack. But there is still a strange debate about whether the terrorist, Malik Faisal Akram, was motivated by anti-Semitism. This is despite the fact he chose to vent his anger by targeting a synagogue on the Sabbath.

Suggesting he wasn't motivated by anti-Semitism would be like arguing that, in 2015, Amedy Coulibaly chose to attack the Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket in Paris at random, rather than because he knew it would be full of Jewish people shopping for Shabbat.

Indeed, despite recent evidence showing that Akram was motivated by Islamism and had made anti-Semitic comments before the attack, one FBI agent was quoted as saying that Akram was “singularly focused on one issue, and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community.”

As naive as that may sound, he seemed to believe Akram was only driven by a desire to free Aafia Siddiqui — a Pakistani neuroscientist with links to al-Qaida, who was sentenced to 86 years for the attempted murder of American soldiers and is being held in Fort Worth, Texas.

Well, my friends, let me say this: the minute anyone enters a synagogue with a gun and points it at Jewish people, it becomes an issue related to the Jewish community. This was not merely an act of “hostage-taking.” It was a terrorist attack motivated by anti-Semitism.

If the definition of terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation against civilians in the pursuit of political aims, Akram's assault to force the release of Siddiqui and his intimidation of civilians clearly qualifies him as a terrorist.

To its credit, the FBI immediately flew in top officers and negotiators and, together with local law enforcement, succeeded in killing the terrorist and freeing the four Jewish hostages. It is becoming clear that law-enforcement agencies throughout North America are now paying more attention to the dangerous trend of violence perpetrated against Jewish institutions.

In 2018, following the attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, I sent an alert to police agencies across the country about the need to secure Jewish communities. This time around, as the terrorist attack was unfolding in Texas, local and national police immediately contacted me to reassure me that extra patrols were being immediately deployed to Jewish institutions to guard against copycat attacks.

In my remarks at this week's launch of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative's Power of One exhibit at Vancouver police headquarters, I spoke about the necessity for law enforcement to secure our communities. Without question, the work of police services is more essential than ever in protecting and defending faith communities from targeted assaults. Often times, this is done in collaboration and partnership with the communities themselves.

Even though Akram had been investigated for possible terror activity in the United Kingdom, he was able to sneak into the United States in an attempt to carry out an attack against the Jewish community. This should concern intelligence agencies in both countries. While lone-wolf attacks are often challenging to uncover, we cannot let our guard down when it comes to potential acts of terrorism.

To a large degree, Akram, and others like him, represent a moral and ethical failing of our society. He apparently thought that Jewish

THIS WAS NOT MERELY AN ACT OF `HOSTAGE TAKING.' IT WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK MOTIVATED BY ANTI-SEMITISM.

people wielded so much power that they could free Siddiqui with a single call to the White House. How ignorant.

Whereas in past decades, anti-Semitism was deemed to be reprehensible and forced to the extreme margins of society, today, conspiracy theories like this one have become normalized. Instead of countering these lies with truth, our education system is propagating them.

Nearly four generations of students have now graduated university falsely believing that Israel practices apartheid and that Jewish people are “colonizers” of their own homeland. Some high schools are also getting in on the action by supporting students organizing “free Palestine” walkouts.

Despite being a free and democratic state, left-wing media is refusing to position Israel in a positive light, while “woke” culture refuses to even acknowledge racism against Jewish people. Is it any wonder that violence against Jewish people is increasing?

Let's start calling a spade a spade: what happened in Texas last weekend was terrorism — full stop.