by Steven Emerson of I.P.T. News
Most Americans may not have heard of Aafia Siddiqui before Saturday, when Malik Faisal Akram, an Islamist gunman entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, outside Dallas, and took the female rabbi and three congregants hostage. Thankfully, the standoff ended without any hostage being harmed.
But for many American Islamist groups, Siddiqui is a martyr, "another victim of the U.S. war of terror." In rallies and seminars throughout the past year, groups including
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslims for
Palestine (AMP) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) Council
for Social Justice demanded that Siddiqui be freed.
Ms. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison after her 2010 conviction
for attempting to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan who were preparing
to interrogate her. She was able to grab an M4 rifle and, according to
her indictment, open fire. Her shots missed and she was wounded by
return fire.
When she was arrested, she was carrying "documents that discussed the
construction of weapons, referenced a 'mass casualty attack,' and
listed a number of New York City landmarks," the Second U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals noted in rejecting her appeal. Some of those documents were in her handwriting and had her fingerprints on them.
"The strength of the government's case was overwhelming," the court found.
After she was shot, she struggled with the Americans. A witness heard her say,
"I am going to kill all you Americans. You are going to die by my
blood." While recovering from her wound at Bagram Air Base, Siddiqui
asked people guarding her about the penalty for attempted murder and
"said that she had picked up a rifle with the intention of scaring the
American team and escaping; and (4) noted that "spewing" bullets at
Americans was a bad thing."
In addition, Siddiqui had a family connection to 9/11 mastermind
Khalid Sheik Mohammed. She moved from the United States to Pakistan
after the al-Qaida attacks, telling
a psychologist who interviewed her that "Americans were intending to
abduct Muslim children and were converting them to Christianity."
In Pakistan, she married K.S. Mohammed's nephew.
The court record and Siddiqui's family connections have gone
unmentioned during the recent events advocating for her cause. So, too,
has the way terrorist groups see her as a "superstar."
"On several occasions, both the Taliban and Islamic State have asked
for either the release or extradition of Dr. Siddiqui in exchange for
U.S. captives," Joe Kasper, deputy chief of staff to then-U.S. Rep.
Duncan Hunter told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. Kasper, the story said, had access "to communications with the militant networks."
ISIS, for example, made separate offers to free American hostages James Foley and Kayla Mueller in exchange for Siddiqui. The Taliban also reportedly offered prisoner swaps to free Siddiqui. Both hostages were murdered.
A third terrorist group, Jabhat al Nusra, trained
an Ohio resident named Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud to plot a terrorist
attack on the Texas penitentiary where Siddiqui is serving her sentence,
George Washington University's Program on Extremism noted in a 2018
report. According to a prosecution sentencing memo,
"Siddiqui's conviction and imprisonment at a federal facility in Texas
was a rallying point for Al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups," and
Mohamud researched information about the prison. He planned
"to execute 'something big' like travelling to Texas, where Dr.
Siddiqui was being held, capturing three or four soldiers and killing
them execution style."
At an October rally held in New York sponsored by more than a dozen
groups, including the Aafia Foundation, CAIR, AMP, and the Muslim
American Society, speakers claimed that her arrest and conviction were
actually part of a war waged on Islam.
"Aafia is our Statue of Liberty. Aafia's hijab is our crown," said Yousef Baig, whose Facebook page indicates
he used to work for CAIR's Houston office. "She is our sister. So why
are we here today? We're here for Aafia. She carries our faith in heart,
just like brother [Mauri] Saalakhan said, she is a hafiza
[memorized the Quran]. She carries our faith within her, and our faith
has been assaulted when Aafia was assaulted. Our religion, our book, our
faith was desecrated when she was tortured. And our prophet is
disappointed because we have not done enough for her."
The United States government denies Siddiqui was ever mistreated.
Muslim Americans need to stand up for Siddiqui, said former CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hassan Shibly,
who also painted a picture of recently deceased American political and
military leaders "answering for their deeds" in the afterlife.
"Our sister Aafia Siddiqui's imprisonment is a test for us more than
it is a test for her. Allah is testing us," Shibly said at the New York
rally. "What are we doing to stand for our sister, for her family, for
all those victims of the United States war of terror against the Muslim
world. She is another victim of the U.S. war of terror. And the
perpetrators will be held accountable, if not in this life, in the next.
Rumsfeld, Bush senior, Powell, they are all answering for their deeds
at this very moment. And they must answer for each and every Iraqi,
Afghani, Pakistani, every person of color, every person throughout the
world whose blood has been shed."
Siddiqui "embodies a political prisoner," antisemitic activist Linda Sarsour said
during a November webinar sponsored by CAIR-Texas. "And I see her in
the same realm that I see Imam Jamil and Leonard Peltier, and many other
former black Panther party leaders and others who have been subjected
to torture and subjected to solitary confinement and subjected to things
that no human being should be subjected to in our incarceration system.
I believe like you said, you know, no one was killed. To have an
86-year sentence when no one's life was taken is absolutely outrageous.
And I'm sure that the general American public will say whatever you
believe that Dr. Aafia did, the fact [is] that there are no dead
bodies."
CAIR was quick to condemn the incident and claim that it stands with the Jewish community. But that solidarity is opportunistic.
CAIR lauds Siddiqui, but overlooks her antisemitic statements, including demanding that no Jews be allowed to serve on her jury.
CAIR double downed in defending its San Francisco chapter leader, Zahra Billoo, after she gave a speech in November urging an audience
to "pay attention" to just about all facets of the American Jewish
community. The "polite Zionists" are still their enemies, she said.
"They are not your friends," she said. "They will not be there for
you when you need them. They will take your friendship and throw your
Palestinian brothers and sisters under the bus."
No one in Congregation Beth Israel had anything to do with Siddiqui's
case. It appears that the gunman chose to target Jews at a synagogue
near her prison.
Steven Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism,
the author of eight books on national security and terrorism, the
producer of two documentaries, and the author of hundreds of articles in
national and international publications.
Copyright © 2022. Investigative Project on Terrorism. All rights reserved.
