MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: British Pro-ISIS Preacher Anjem Choudary Uses Texas Synagogue Hostage Incident As Opportunity To Launch New Twitter Storm Demanding Release Of Aafia Siddiqui
On January 16, 2022, British pro-Islamic State (ISIS) preacher Anjem Choudary published a “press release” on his blog calling for a second Twitter storm to demand the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist linked to Al-Qaeda who is incarcerated in the U.S. on charges of attempting to kill a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Choudary had previously organized a Twitter storm on September 17, 2021, and the text of the new press release, with some additions and subtractions, is very similar to the one he published in September.
Above is part of the text of the recent press release published on Choudary’s blog.
The case of Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, returned to the public eye on January 15, 2022, when an armed man entered Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, during Sabbath prayers, took four people hostage, including the rabbi, and demanded the release of his “sister,” Aafia Siddiqui. His demand led to initial false reports that the gunman was her biological brother, Muhammad Siddiqui. However, on January 16, the FBI confirmed the gunman’s identity as Malik Faisal Akram, a 44-year-old British national from Blackburn, England, and reported that he had been shot to death by an FBI Hostage Rescue Team. All the hostages were released safely on Saturday night.
MEMRI TV Clip No. 9307
CAIR-TX Panel On Aafia Siddiqui – Siddiqui’s Attorney Marwa Elbially: U.S. Government Lies On ‘Large Scale,’ Like It Lied About Jessica Lynch; Activist Linda Sarsour: Siddiqui ‘Embodies’ A Political Prisoner
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In a November 11, 2021 panel that was streamed live on YouTube by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Texas (CAIR-TX), titled “Injustice: Dr. Aafia [Siddiqui] and the 20-Year Legacy of America’s Wars,” Aafia Siddiqui’s attorney Marwa Elbially said that the U.S. government lies on a large scale. She gave the example of the “fabricated” rescue of U.S. soldier Jessica Lynch, who was taken hostage by Iraqi forces in 2003. She also said that the fact that Aafia Siddiqui has not become a “household name” for every American and that she has not been portrayed in “stupid TV shows” or “poorly-made movies” is proof that the government never really believed that she was an Al-Qaeda operative.
Prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of Mpower Change, said that Aafia Siddiqui is a “political prisoner” like H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of two law enforcement officers, and like Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two FBI agents. Notably, in September 2005, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh also claimed that Jessica Lynch’s rescue had been staged (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 881.) For more about Linda Sarsour, see MEMRI TV Clips No. 6935, 6808, and 6111.