British terrorist shot dead in Texas synagogue siege was banned from Blackburn court 20 years ago for ranting about how he wished he had been on one of the 9/11 planes – so why WAS he let into America?

From the Daily Mail

The British Muslim shot dead after taking worshippers hostage in a Texas synagogue at gunpoint was once banned from court buildings in his hometown after telling officials that he wished he had died in the 9 11 terror attacks, MailOnline can exclusively reveal today.

As police in the US and UK scramble to find if he was part of a wider terror cell, it has emerged that Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from Blackburn, Lancashire, was branded a ‘menace’ for expressing his desire to be on board one of the planes that destroyed the World Trade Centre in 2001.

The terror suspect was given a rare Exclusion Order at Blackburn’s magistrates’ court – the first in 25 years – for raving about 9/11 just hours after the attack that claimed more than 2,750 lives.

A letter sent to Akram confirming the ban stated: ‘Once again you were threatening and abusive towards court staff. In a clear reference to the terrorist attack on New York the previous day you said on more than one occasion to one of my court ushers you should have been on the f***ing plane’.

The ban followed a series of incidents which culminated with Akram abusing court ushers over the New York attacks. Akram was reported as saying in a local newspaper at the time: ‘I’m innocent. This is nothing to do with me because I didn’t say that. People at the court have just got it in for me because they don’t like me.’  Mr Wells described Akram as a ‘menace’ who had a long history of abusing court staff.

The incident 20 years ago raises questions about whether he was known to the security services on either side of the Atlantic – and how he managed to get into the United States two weeks ago with a significant criminal record.  It is also possible that his 9/11 rants and other crimes may not have been picked up if he lied about not being a criminal because the US authorities do not routinely have access to Britain’s criminal record information database.

He was described by his family as suffering ‘mental health issues’ but concerns over a wider plot grew last night as two teenagers were arrested over the incident by anti-terror officers in south Manchester.

The pair, both believed to be under 18, cannot be identified for legal reasons. They were still in custody overnight, Greater Manchester Police said.  We must remember that these days an arrest is often made to enable questioning to take, where in previous years the phrase was “at X-town police station, helping with inquiries” voluntarily and free to leave once the police were satisfied. Arrests sound dramatic, but I suspect that witnesses are less happy to ‘assist’ these days. They may be charged with something; we may hear no more as they are quietly released. 

British extremist Anjem Choudary has been campaigning online for Siddiqui’s release; I saw his ugly mug in my mind as soon as I heard that the gunman had a British accent. 

Akram’s links to Pakistan are also being probed, having been a regular visitor to the country where his father was born. He was reportedly a supporter of the conservative Tablighi Jamaat group, set up to ‘purify’ Islam. It denies being a terror group – but members are banned from Saudi after the organisation was branded ‘one of the gates of terrorism’ by the Gulf state.

Tablighi Jamaat are much in my mind at the moment, for other reasons. The Blackburn Markaz is the HQ of one arm of Tablighi Jamaat following the split of the  UK branch of the organisation in 2018 (according to the Pakistani press) The London Markaz (the West Ham megamosque) founded the Blackburn Markaz. Meanwhile the other  faction continue worship and Dawa at the Dewsbury Markaz and also have a presence in London.