Audio of Texas Synagogue Hostage Taker: “We’re Coming to F—ing America … We’ll Give Them F—ing War”

The Jewish Chronicle (JC) obtained audio of Malik Faisal Akram, who held four people hostage at the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, TX on January 15, telling his brother in a phone call that he’s setting a precedent to bring “f—ing war” to the United States.

The audio, which The JC said they obtained through a “security source,” features Akram’s brother, Gulbar, imploring him to let the hostages go and give himself up. Gulbar was talking to Akram at a police station in Blackburn, England, according to The JC. Akram responded, “I’ve come to die,” prompting Gulbar to tell Akram that what he’s doing is a sin. Akram then sounded agitated.

“You wanna preach what is a gunnah [sin] and what ain’t a gunnah,” Akram replied. “I promised my brother when I watched him on that death bed that I will go down as a martyr, I’ll let no motherf—er suppress me.” Akram and Gulbar’s other brother had died from COVID-19 a few months earlier.

Akram went on to call the hostages “four beautiful … Jewish guys” who are “trying to play ball with me” with his demands to free Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, who is currently serving an 86-year prison sentence for attempting to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan. Siddiqui has stated through an attorney that she had nothing to do with the hostage crisis and denounced it.

“I’m bombed up, I’ve got f—ing every ammunition, I’ve only been here two weeks and I’ve got them all at gunpoint,” Akram said. “I’m gonna die, I’ve told them I’ll release these four guys, I’ll come on the yard, I’ll have a toe-to-toe with you, shoot me dead, shoot [Siddiqui] dead.” Akram then claimed that Siddiqui was “f—ing framed” and that he told his children “to man up and don’t f—ing cry at my funeral.” “I’ve come to die [Gulbar], ok? I’ve prayed to Allah for two years for this.” He added that he’d “rather live one day as a lion than 100 years as a jackal.”

Gulbar argued that Akram’s death would not cause the U.S. to release Siddiqui, prompting Akram to exclaim, “Who gives a f—. I’ve asked Allah for this death and Allah’s with me.” Gulbar again pleaded with his brother to stop what he was doing, telling him that the hostages are “innocent” and that he should think about his children. “They will never take another woman from a Muslim,” Akram replied. “I’m opening the doors for every youngster to enter America and f— with them. Why does Afghanistan have to have a defensive war… why do we need these motherf—ers to come to our country and do f—ing battle and we can’t come in their country? They come into our f—ing countries and rape our women and f— our kids and we can’t come in their countries and f— with them?”

He added that maybe the U.S. will “have compassion for f—ing Jews, but guess what? I’m opening the doors for every f—ing youngster in England to know, live your f—ing life, bro, you f—ing coward. We’re coming to f—ing America and f— with them. If they want to f— with us, we’ll give them f—ing war.”

EXCLUSIVE: The JC has obtained a recording of the last phone call made by Malik Faisal Akram during his siege of a Texas synagogue pic.twitter.com/LrMSXxQwFb

— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) January 19, 2022

The JC also reported that Akram’s family was listening into the call, and they concluded “that Akram did not want to live anymore, would not put down his weapon, and intended to die in the siege.” Akram was subsequently killed by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team after the hostages escaped; one of the hostages, Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, had thrown a chair at Akram, giving the hostages the opportunity to escape.

The Algemeiner reported that a few days before the attack, Akram became “agitated” after the Islamic Center of Irving would not let him sleep there for the night; the mosque forced him to leave. He came back the next day and apologized. “Thank God that he didn’t shoot anybody or do anything bad at our place,” Khalid Hamideh, the mosque’s spokesperson, told CNN. “I am shocked that he did not do something like this at our mosque because they said he was really agitated the first day.”

Various news outlets have reported that Akram was placed on MI5’s “subject of interest” watchlist toward the end of 2020 over being a potential Islamist terror threat but was eventually removed from it. He had a prior criminal record and reportedly became radicalized in 2017; Gulbar had told The New York Times that Akram had been dealing with mental health issues that were exacerbated after his other brother died from COVID-19 a few months ago.