IDENTIFIED: Police Identify Hostage-Taker In Texas Synagogue Standoff: Malik Faisal Akram

The man who took a rabbi and other people hostage at a Dallas-area Reform synagogue last night in an hours-long standoff with law enforcement has been identified as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Matthew DeSarno, the FBI special agent in charge of the Dallas field office, confirmed the identity of the Colleyville, Texas, hostage-taker in a statement sent to The Washington Post on Sunday. Authorities previously said the suspect had died.

“At this time, there is no indication that other individuals are involved,” the statement said.

President Joe Biden condemned the events Sunday and said many questions remained.

“This was an act of terror,” Biden told reporters during a visit to a Philadelphia food bank.

The president said he had spoken with Attorney General Merrick Garland about the standoff at Congregation Beth Israel and that they were working to “address these types of acts.” Biden added that he did not have all the facts yet about how the hostage-taker had obtained weapons, the motive or why that specific synagogue was targeted.

Earlier Sunday, a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office confirmed in a statement to The Post that officials were “aware of the death of a British man in Texas and are in contact with the local authorities.” Metropolitan Police and other U.K. authorities said they were working closely with their U.S. counterparts on the U.S.-led investigation.

Stacey Silverman, who has been a member of the Congregation Beth Israel for 13 years and watched as the hostages were taken while the service was being live-streamed, said the suspect could be heard saying that he had flown to the area from 5,000 miles away – and that he chose a synagogue because the United States “only cares about Jewish lives.”

A law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation said the man’s motive for taking hostages appeared to be his anger over the U.S. imprisonment of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman being held in federal prison in Fort Worth for trying to kill U.S. soldiers. Siddiqui was convicted on terrorism charges in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison after opening fire on Americans.

The Reform synagogue attack, which began around 11 a.m. local time, has shaken the Jewish community both in the United States and around the world, with many Jews voicing concerns for their safety.

“Our sanctuaries are still the target of those who wish to harm us,” Hen Mazzig, a senior fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to research and tackling antisemitic hate speech online, told The Post on Sunday.

On Sunday, the rabbi of the synagogue, located in the suburb of Fort Worth and Dallas expressed gratitude and relief that he and the others hostages were safe.

“I am thankful and filled with appreciation for all of the vigils and prayers and love and support,” Charlie Cytron-Walker wrote in a post on a Facebook account that two Jewish community leaders confirmed as his. “I am grateful that we made it out. I am grateful to be alive.”

Cytron-Walker, originally from Lansing, Mich., has a long career of working for social and humanitarian causes. He previously worked at a civil and human rights organization in Detroit and later as an assistant director of a center in Amherst, Mass., that provides food and other services to those in need, according to a biography posted on the congregation’s website.

(c) 2022, The Washington Post · Jennifer Hassan, Paulina Villegas, Amy B Wang, Lateshia Beachum 

{Matzav.com}