Messianic Jew killed in San Bernardino had argument on Islam with shooter
(JNS.org) One of the 14 victims of the terror attack in San Bernardino, California, was a Messianic Jew who purportedly had previously gotten into a heated debate with one of the shooters over the nature of Islam.
Nicholas Thalasinos, 52, was a fellow health inspector with one of the terrorists, Syed Rizwan Farook, Thalasinos’s wife Jennifer told the Los Angeles Times.
“My husband was just a very devout believer,” she said. “He became born again a couple of years ago and because of that I had a very strong faith, so I know that he’s in a much better place.”
Messianic Jews are a controversial Christian group whose adherents believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but incorporate many Jewish components into their faith. While no major Jewish denomination accepts the followers as Jewish, many are former Jews and support Israel.
Thalasinos, who had pro-Israel views, had apparently gotten into a heated argument with Farook about the nature of Islam.
Thalasinos’s friend, Kuuleme Stephens, told The Associated Press that she called him while he was working with Farook and that amid their debate, Thalasinos declared that Farook “doesn’t agree that Islam is not a peaceful religion.” She heard Farook counter that Americans don’t understand Islam, and Thalasinos responded by saying, “I don’t know how to talk with him.”
Jennifer Thalasinos told The Associated Press that Farook and her late husband “probably did have debates,” but that she “never got the impression it was in a bad way.” (Preceding provided by JNS.org)
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Shooter was ‘fixated’ on Israel, according to his father
SAN BERNARDINO (WJC) — Syed Rizwan Farook, who together with his wife Tashfeen Malik massacred 14 people and wounded 21 in San Bernardino, California, last week was “fixated” on Israel and supported the ideology of the Islamic State terror group, his father told an Italian newspaper.
In what authorities are treating as an act of terrorism, the couple stormed a Christmas party for county health employees at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center on Wednesday morning, and embarked on a killing spree.
Before the attack, Farook had expressed some troubling beliefs, his father, who is also named Syed Farook, told ‘La Stampa’ in an interview: “He said he shared the ideology of [ISIS leader] al-Baghdadi to create an Islamic state, and he was fixated on Israel.”
FBI agents also recovered a massive arsenal of weapons at a California home linked to Farook and Malik – including nearly 5,000 rounds of ammunition and a dozen pipe bombs.
In a speech to the nation, US President Barack Obama escribed the attack as “an act of terrorism, designed to kill innocent people.”
“The FBI is still gathering the facts about what happened in San Bernardino, but here’s what we know: The victims were brutally murdered and injured by one of their co-workers and his wife,” he said. “So far we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas, or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home.”
ISIS hailed the couple as “supporters” of the terror group.
Malik had posted to Facebook a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said. (Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress)
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AJC condemns Trump for calling for ban on Muslim immigrants
NEW YORK — The American Jewish Committee (AJC) condemned in the strongest terms the latest offensive and inflammatory comments from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who today suggested that all Muslims should be banned from entering the United States.
“As Americans, who just observed a holiday remembering the Pilgrims who fled religious persecution in Europe to found a new home on these shores, we find Mr. Trump’s call abhorrent and wrong,” said AJC Associate Executive Director for Policy Jason Isaacson. “And as Jews who are now observing Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates a small religious minority’s right to live unmolested, we are deeply disturbed by the nativist racism inherent in the candidate’s latest remarks. You don’t need to go back to the Hanukkah story to see the horrific results of religious persecution; religious stereotyping of this sort has been tried often, inevitably with disastrous results.
“Yes, this country faces the very real threat of radical Islamist terror. We cannot, however, fall into the trap of blaming and banning an entire religious group, who overwhelmingly reject the violence and extremism of Islamist terrorists.
“We were heartened to see condemnation of these comments come from all corners of the American political establishment, and we urge Mr. Trump to reconsider his views.” (Preceding provided by AJC)