Mehdi Hasan Offers Powerful Message of ‘Love and Support’ to Jewish Viewers: ‘We Have Your Back’

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan offered a statement of “love and support” to the Jewish community in the wake of the Texas synagogue attack.

The FBI identified 44-year-old British man Malik Faisal Akram as the gunman who held four people hostage for hours at a synagogue near Fort Worth on Saturday. Police killed Akram after the hostages — one rabbi and three congregants — were released.

“This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” the FBI said in a statement on the attack. “We never lose sight of the threat extremists pose to the Jewish community and to other religious, racial, and ethnic groups.”

During the attack, Akram made anti-Jewish comments and demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani-Muslim woman convicted of terrorism charges in 2010.

On his MSNBC show Sunday night, Hasan spoke out against attacks on Jewish places of worship.

“What happened yesterday was an outrage,” Hasan said. “Synagogues shouldn’t be places where Jewish-American worshipers have to be afraid. Synagogues shouldn’t be places that require armed guards.”

The British-American journalist pointed to recent attacks on synagogues, including the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in which 11 worshippers were killed in the biggest massacre of Jews in U.S. history.

Hasan also noted that despite the pandemic keeping many at home through 2020, it was still “the third-highest year on record for anti-Semitic incidents in America.”

“Anti-Semitism is a vile, resilient and long-standing virus in our communities,” Hasan said. “There’s a reason it’s called ‘the oldest hatred.'”

Hasan called the fact that Jews are the number one target of religious hate crimes “a scandal,” before noting that Akram reportedly sought the release of Siddiqui.

“Look, whether it’s on the brown Muslim far-right or the white Christian far-right, attributing super powers to Jews, claiming they are behind all of the world’s evils, responsible for all of the world’s ills, is both insane and deeply dangerous,” he said. “And so all of us have a role to play in pushing back against the anti-Semitic tropes and bigoted rhetoric that inevitably fuel anti-Jewish violence and hate crimes.”

The MSNBC host concluded with a message of support to the rabbi of the Texas synagogue, who was one of the hostages, as well as his Jewish viewers.

“The love and support matters,” Hasan concluded. “Let me say to Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and to all of my Jewish viewers watching at home tonight: you are not alone. We have your back. And in this moment of fear, hate, and violence, you can count on the rest of us.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.