Millions of people around the world, including myself, spent much of our Saturday with our thoughts and prayers focused on Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. This is a city I've been to many times and is one of many wealthy cookie cutter suburbs in the Dallas metro full of wide streets, McMansions, and vehicles the size of World War II tanks. It’s a rather sleepy place, and on day one of the NFL playoffs, and a night of both championship boxing and UFC fights, I certainly didn't think my mind would be on Colleyville.
Then word came that a gunman had stormed Congregation Beth Israel and taken the rabbi and several congregants hostage. My mind rushed to recent deadly synagogue attacks in Poway, California and Pittsburgh ( I recently read this excellent book about the Tree of Life Synagogue that I’ll plug here). My thoughts and prayers were with everyone inside and I was unable to focus on my planned day of sports.
When things like this happen I have the reaction a lot of Muslims do- I hope this person isn’t Muslim. When it comes to Jews there is never any certainty as antisemitism is rampant among so many different groups. It didn't take long to discover that unfortunately this person was a Muslim.
Initially media reports incorrectly stated that the shooter was the brother of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui who is being held at a nearby federal prison and is serving an eighty-six year prison sentence after being convicted of attempting to attack soldiers and having ties to Al Qaeda. As it unfolded that freeing Aafia Siddiqui was the motive of the terrorist I asked myself why is he targeting a synagogue? What does a synagogue have to do with the case of Aafia Siddiqui? And it’s here that I’ll confess my ignorance. I didn't know that Siddiqui blames her incarceration on Israel and Jews and has went on numerous antisemitic rants and even demanded jurors in her case undergo DNA testing to ensure they had no Jewish heritage. Sick stuff.
A few months back I attended a rally along with family members calling for the release of Aafia Siddiqui. Looking at the facts of the case I believed then, and believe now, that, even if guilty, she's served enough time. This rally was sponsored by CAIR-Texas and others and Imam Omar Sulaiman spoke. It’s ridiculous to tie those who exercised their democratic right to attend a rally to the terrorist attack at Beth Israel. People have the right to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The campaign to free Aafia Siddiqui, and her family, have both condemned the attack. However, after learning just how antisemitic Siddiqui is, and upon further reading, in hindsight I would've opted to personally not attend the rally.
Antisemitism is a very old bigotry and history is full of persecutions and violent attacks against Jews. Muslims are far from the only antisemites; but there is a serious problem of antisemitism in the Muslim community. This includes a lot of anti-Israel rhetoric crossing the line into antisemitism ( although, to be certain, one can criticize Israel without being antisemitic). This problem must be recognized and met head on. Already today; conspiracy theories are circulating in some online Muslim spaces that the Beth Israel attack is a conspiracy theory orchestrated by Jews in order to discredit the campaign to free Siddiqui. This is as vile as it’s moronic and only a dimwitted and hateful individual would believe such a thing.
When asking why a synagogue was targeted we also can't dismiss recent rhetoric referring to “Zionist synagogues" and 90% of Jewish organizations being enemies. Someone predisposed to violence will hear statements like this and see it as a green light to violently target random Jews. This rhetoric must be condemned and replaced with more nuance.
Thank Gd, alhamdulilah, baruch Hashem, no one died in this attack other than the terrorist. I like happy endings. Now let’s learn the lessons.
I agree with you that birds of a feather flock together and Siddiqui's anti-Jewish outbursts have a correlation with those who would attack Jews. I commented on Imam Omar's page, when he was stumping for her release, that it was not a good look because she was anti-Jewish and a nut. Now Imam Omar finds himself coming to the aid of his Jewish colleague who was essentially incited against. I hate it when the Muslim community gets played like that. We should be more circumspect about declaring Muslims innocent or misunderstood when they are, in actual fact, wolves in sheep's clothing.
I grew up a block and a half from Tree of Life. Antisemitism is primarily Christian in origin, and the person who killed 11 people in my childhood neighborhood was a white Christian, something no one ever mentions. I do not associate Islam with antisemitism, but I have seen how _some_ anti-Zionism has bled into antisemitism (not just among Muslims), and I deeply appreciate your thoughtful discussion of this.
After the Tree of Life shooting, the Muslim community guarded the synagogue until it could be secured and also raised money for the victims. We need each other. Be safe and well. Thank you.