Brother Of Texas Temple Terrorist: ‘Religious Nuts Got Hold Of Him, He Didn’t Hate Jews’

NEW YORK (VINnews) — The brother of the British terrorist who barricaded himself in a Texas temple on January 15 and took four people hostage said that his brother had been radicalized by “religious nuts” . Gulbar Akram, brother of Malik Faisal Akram who was shot dead as federal agents stormed the temple, has called on Muslim community leaders and authorities to take stronger action to stop indoctrination.

Gulbar Akram told The Sun that his brother had also not harbored hatred for Jews, at least in the past.

“He didn’t hate Jews. One of his closest friends is Jewish,” he said.

Akram was raised in Blackburn, northern England, to a family which had immigrated from Pakistan. Gulbar said that his brother had initially led a normal life until he was expelled from school for fights and “hustling”. His parents sent him to a military school in Pakistan but he later returned to England, although he failed to complete business school.

“He was very intelligent but he was in a rush to make money.” Gulbar said. “He didn’t care if something was stolen if he could make some money.”

Gulbar said his brother’s fall into religious extremism began in 2003, when he joined Tablighi Jamaat sect, a missionary movement which exhorts Muslims to return to their religious practices. At one point he burned £60,000 ($80,000) in cash outside a mosque, saying it was “dirty money.”

Malik married in 2004 and had six children. But his marriage also became troubled. Gulbar said his brother would disappear for months on missionary work.

In 2016, Malik divorced. He closed his pharmacy business and disappeared, traveling around the world, sometimes reappearing, but in a general disconnect from his family. Malik’s close association with radical Islamists led to his investigation by Britain’s counterterrorism unit at MI5 but the case against him was closed for lack of evidence..

“He wasn’t an angel,” Gulbar said. “But if these religious nuts hadn’t got a hold of him, this would never have happened… He would be alive now if he hadn’t joined the extremists.”

He added that “The mosques, Imams, police and the authorities all need to do more to prevent this kind of thing happening.”

The British newspapr The Times reported that Akram had twice been referred to a British government program called Prevent, which aims to dissuade people seen as vulnerable to radicalization.

It cited sources as saying Akram was referred in 2016 and 2019 over “concerns about his anti-Western and conservative Islamic views.” But it was unclear whether he engaged with the voluntary scheme, the daily added.

Gulbar was apparently the last person to talk to Malik alive, as the latter called him from within the synagogue during the standoff with police and the FBI, shortly before his death, in a conversation that has made its way online.

American and British authorities are still investigating whether more could have been done to identify the risk posed by Akram in time to prevent the attack.