The man who took hostages at a Fort Worth synagogue over the weekend, 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, was a native Pakistani, hardly “British” as the media would have him. Simultaneously an example of the immigration failures of both the U.S. and U.K., Akram is said to have entered the U.S. as recently as two weeks ago. If so, he no doubt benefited from Joe Biden, immediately upon taking office, having revoked multiple national security proclamations issued by his predecessor on the grounds that they were “just plain wrong.”
In a posting on the Blackburn Muslim Community Facebook page, a person identifying himself as Akram’s brother explained Akram’s actions by claiming that his brother was suffering from “mental health issues.” Yet otherwise on that page, members of the “Community” were praying that God “bless [Akram] with the highest ranks of Paradise.” In a related matter, British counter-terrorism officers arrested two Manchester “teenagers.”
Even if Akram were mental–perhaps especially–how could he so easily come to the United States with a known past history of pro-Jihadi activism? Questions directed to both ICE and British authorities have so far gone unanswered.
The relative ease with which Akram entered the U.S. is not the only example in this case of careless immigration enforcement. Indeed, the woman known as “Lady Al Qaeda,” Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakinstani object of his violent actions, was allowed in 1990 to come here on a student visa, joining her brother Muhammad and sister Fowzia. As a student, she befriended various Muslim activists and participated in recruiting and leaflet distribution activism.
Following graduation, Siddiqui agreed to an arranged marriage with another Pakistani national named Amjad Mohammed Khan, a recently minted anesthesiologist. During their marriage, the two traveled back and forth to Pakistan numerous times. No longer students, their immigration status at this time is unclear, yet despite their dubious trips back to Pakistan, they were allowed to live here unmolested.
After 9/11, the couple left the U.S. again for Pakistan, where they relocated near the Afghanistan border and Siddiqui began fraternizing with members of Al Qaeda. Eventually, in 2002, they divorced and Siddiqui upped her insurgent activities.
The FBI finally caught on and Siddiqui disappeared from sight, resurfacing in 2008 in Ghazni, Afghanistan. It was during her interrogration by FBI agents and U.S. Army officers there that she grabbed a rifle and began shooting. She missed, but the resulting charges and conviction led in 2010 to her 86-year prison sentence, which she is serving in Fort Worth. More than a decade later came Malik Faisal Akram.
A nation seriously concerned for its citizens’ safety would pay attention to the background and sentiments of persons permitted to come and study and live there. Neither Akram nor Siddiqui kept their activities under wraps, yet the former had to nearly perpetrate a massacre and the latter conducted unimpeded subversive activities for years before her arrest.
In response to the incident, Joe Biden, who had gleefully abolished such Trump directives as “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the U.S.” and “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the U.S. by Terrorists” has now promised a “harder focus.”
That focus will of course not be on terrorists but–you guessed it–on guns. Akram is ambiguously said to have purchased his gun “on the street.” Given the difficulty of doing that through legal channels, the phrase suggests he obtained it illegally, possibly from a collaborator. If so, it was in violation of a slew of already existing laws. Nevertheless, Joe knows a Dem talking point when he sees one.
“Jihadists don’t kill people, guns kill people.”
For more, see the NY Post.