Texas Rabbi: Despite False Media Narratives, Synagogue Attack Brought Jews and Muslims Together

This clip is from the Jan. 18, 2022 broadcast.

On Saturday, an armed British man named Malik Faisal Akram took a rabbi and three congregants hostage at a synagogue outside of Fort Worth, Texas, resulting in an 11-hour standoff that ended once the rabbi threw a chair at Akram, who was later shot dead by the police. The standoff — which left all four hostages unharmed — has been identified by President Biden and federal authorities as an antisemitic act of terror.

"Democracy Now!" speaks with Rabbi Nancy Kasten, who says despite false media narratives painting the hostage crisis as an outgrowth of hostility between Muslims and Jews, the local Muslim community mobilized in support of the Jewish community this weekend. She also notes Muslim communities are less protected under federal and state law, which "creates a lot of opportunity for very misguided and false information to be perpetrated about the Muslim community."