Antisemitism and terrorism are on the rise while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains unfunded, Randy Weber (R-Texas) said on Washington Watch Friday.
There’s no apparent connection to the attacks.
In West Bloomfield, Michigan, 41-year-old Lebanese-born Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, a U.S. citizen, drove a vehicle loaded with a rifle, fireworks and jugs believed to contain gasoline into Temple Israel, a major Reform synagogue.
Dozens of children were inside at the time. The only death was Ghazali, who shot himself after ramming the building.
No children were harmed, but congregants were terrorized by what might have been.
The synagogue had recently undergone security upgrades and staff had completed active shooter training.
In Virginia, future military officers were targeted as Sierra Leone-born Mohamed Bailor Jalloh (pictured at right), a naturalized U.S. citizen, specifically asked if the class he entered was ROTC before opening fire.
Col. Brandon Shah, the ROTC leader and a military veteran, was killed. Two others were wounded.
Jalloh had previously served an 11-year sentence for providing material support to the militant Islamic group ISIS. He yelled “Allahu Akbar” before shooting. The Arabic phrase “Allah is the greatest,” is used in Islam’s daily prayers and other events.
Democrats are blocking DHS funding in the Senate “and wanting to fault President (Donald) Trump for not having a declaration of War against Iranian terrorists that have killed more and more Americans, more Jewish people, more Israelis since 1983,” Weber said.
The attacks in Michigan and Virginia come on the heels of a bomb-throwing incident by two Pennsylvania teenagers outside the New York City home of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas by Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal.
In New York, Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, both from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, were charged in federal court with attempting to support ISIS, using a weapon of mass destruction, and multiple explosives offenses.
Diagne had a history of mental health concerns and domestic violence. He wore a t-shirt with an Iranian flag a hoodie that said, “Property of Allah.”
“We need to be paying attention. This needs to be labeled antisemitism and terrorism all rolled into one,” Weber said. “This has got to stop, and Democrats have got to get off dead center and start funding DHS.”
Some make the connection between these separate incidents and the U.S.-led war in Iran, but such violence has been going on a long time, Weber said.
In 2009, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, carried out a mass shooting at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, killing 13 people and injuring 32 others.
The attack, which lasted about 10 minutes, is considered the deadliest mass shooting on a U.S. military base.
Hasan, who was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, opened fire on unarmed soldiers and civilians, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" during the rampage.
He was armed with an FN Five-seven pistol, which he had legally purchased, and was later found with a .357 Magnum revolver he did not use.
Hasan had been in email contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Yemeni-American cleric linked to al-Qaeda, prior to the shooting.
He remains on death row at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Weber told Hice he was serving on the Texas legislature at the time of the Hasan shooting.
“Americans need to be paying attention. The president is on track; our great men and women that are fighting for us are on track; and those who are taking care of us at the airports, they’re on track too. We’ve got to keep them funded,” Weber said.
