“The biggest part of the story is what they DON’T say.”
QUICK FACTS:
- FBI identified the 44-year-old Islamic terrorist from Blackburn (U.K.) who was shot dead after taking hostages at a Texas synagogue as Malik Faisal Akram, Forbes reports.
- The armed Akram took four people hostage, including a rabbi, for nearly 12 hours at a Texas synagogue, the FBI Dallas Field Office said on Sunday, as an FBI investigation into the incident reportedly spread overseas.
- Joe Biden referred to Akram’s actions as “This was an act of terror,” in an official White House statement. “I wanted to make sure that we got the word out [to] synagogues and other places of worship that we’re not going to tolerate this,” he said.
- Conservative filmmaker and commentator Dinesh D’Souza took to social media to point out how major newspapers chose to emphasize the fact that Akram was a British national, instead of the purportedly more-relevant fact that Akram was an Islamic terrorist.
- When The Telegraph, a major British newspaper, reported the attack, they tweeted, “BREAKING: Man with English accent ‘holds rabbi and congregation hostage’ at Texas synagogue.”
- D’Souza posted a screenshot of the Telegraph’s tweet to Instagram with the caption, “The biggest part of the story is what they DON’T say #islam #terrorism.”
TELEGRAPH REPORT AVOIDS CALLING AKRAM A TERRORIST:
- The British newspaper avoided characterizing Akram as a terrorist or an Islamist, instead attributing the term to Akram’s brother, Aafia Siddiqui.
- “A man with an English accent who claimed to be the brother of a known terrorist on Saturday night held a rabbi and his congregation hostage at an American synagogue,” wrote the Telegraph.
- The only other mention of terrorism in the piece was another mention of Akram’s brother. “The suspect had claimed to be the brother of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui,” the piece went on, “according to a US official quoted by ABC News, though his identity has not been released.”
BACKGROUND:
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed Saturday that an attack and hostage-taking by an armed Islamic terrorist at a synagogue near Dallas, Texas, was “not specifically related to the Jewish community,” prompting criticism online, Breitbart reports.
- “Biden’s FBI: The Islamist terrorist, who held Jews hostage at a Texas synagogue, on Sabbath, was ‘singularly focused on one issue’ that was not ‘specifically related to the Jewish community,'” tweeted Ari Hoffman, editor for The Post Millennial.
- “There will be attempts to make today’s events in Texas about everything under the sun—except antisemitism,” tweeted Avi Mayer, Managing Director of Public Affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC). “Don’t let it happen. The attacker targeted a synagogue and held four Jews, including a rabbi, hostage. This was an act of antisemitism, plain and simple.”
- “Synagogue a totally random target?” asked Townhall editor Guy Benson rhetorically. “Nobody believes this. Nobody.”
