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NY synagogue attacker’s former stepfather says attacker “would go to the mosque and pray. He is still a Muslim”

Jan 3, 2020 2:00 pm By Robert Spencer

“He added: ‘He considered himself a Muslim, but he didn’t practice…He didn’t pray five times a day. He didn’t do the dietary supplements. He went through the process. He would go to the mosque and pray. He is still a Muslim.’ He thinks it’s possible that Thomas’s religious beliefs ‘played some type of part’ in the attack on the rabbi’s home.”

Will this possibility be investigated, and will New York authorities consider its implications? Of course not.

“Grafton Thomas: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” by Jessica McBride, Heavy, December 31, 2019 (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

Grafton Thomas, the suspect accused of stabbing multiple Jewish people with an 18-inch machete at a Monsey, New York rabbi’s home during Hanukkah celebrations, left behind journals containing anti-Semitic references, comments about Adolf Hitler and references to the Black Hebrew Israelite group, authorities say.

The attack, which unfolded in Rockland County, New York, was the latest in a series of attacks against Jewish people in New York. The suspects in the earlier mass shooting at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City also showed interest in the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.

Thomas’s former stepfather, Joe Kennedy, told Heavy in an interview that, through the time he knew him, until 2014, Grafton had grown increasingly aggressive and unstable, even attacking him with a fire extinguisher. He believes Thomas is mentally ill and also provided some biographical details, saying that Thomas had previously served in the military, was born in America to a family with roots in Guyana, once worked on a chicken farm, and identified as Muslim.

“He was a guy almost 6 foot 5, and 200 and something odd pounds. That’s a frightening situation when it’s someone pretty much out of control,” said Kennedy, adding that he never heard Thomas express hatred toward Jewish people during the decade he knew him. “He is a mentally disturbed young man who didn’t receive proper treatment.”

According to CNN, Thomas’s family released a statement reading in part, “We believe the actions of which he is accused, if committed by him, tragically reflect profound mental illness for which. … Grafton has received episodic treatment before being released.” They also said that Thomas “has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races.”

Thomas is now charged with federal hate crimes. Thomas’s “residence contained handwritten journals with several pages of anti-Semitic references,” the Department of Justice revealed in a press release. “Thomas’s cellphone contained Internet searches dating back to at least November 2019 for terms such as ‘Zionist Temples’ in Staten Island and New Jersey, as well as a webpage visit on the day of the attack to an article titled, ‘New York To Increase Police Presence After Anti-Semitic Attacks.’”

He’s also accused of referring to Adolf Hitler and “Nazi culture” on the same page as drawings of a Star of David and Swastika. In addition, he used his phone to search “why did Hitler hate the Jews” and “German Jewish Temples near me” as well as “Zionist temples in Elizabeth NJ” and of Staten Island and “prominent companies founded by Jews in America,” the complaint alleges….

Kennedy also shed new light on biographical details of Thomas; he alleged that Thomas associated with the Crips and Bloods gang. Thomas was born in America and raised in Brooklyn but his mother moved the family to a smaller town to get away from gang influences.

He said Thomas was briefly in the Army years ago but received a medical discharge. He said that Thomas held odd jobs over the years, working on a chicken farm and factory, but relied on his mother and stepdad for rent and even furniture. He said Thomas was Muslim.

Kennedy agreed to speak out so that people get the real story instead of hearing from people who barely knew Thomas. He said Thomas was supposed to take medications and his mother tried to get him help, but he wouldn’t always take it. He believes he was schizophrenic, bipolar, and had depression.

However, Kennedy rejected the characterization of Thomas as a “terrorist” at the time he knew him anyway and said he never knew him to “label” people or express any hatred toward Jews back then. Rather, the former stepdad’s description of Thomas roughly matches that given by Thomas’s pastor to reporters: Of a person whose mental health was unraveling for years. Kennedy spoke to Heavy before the news broke of the hate crime charges and anti-Semitic journals….

He added: “He considered himself a Muslim, but he didn’t practice…He didn’t pray five times a day. He didn’t do the dietary supplements. He went through the process. He would go to the mosque and pray. He is still a Muslim.”

He thinks it’s possible that Thomas’s religious beliefs “played some type of part” in the attack on the rabbi’s home. He claimed that Thomas thought he was affiliated with the Crips and Bloods gang and that one time he called people from Brooklyn to come “put laser beams” on a neighbor’s house they thought was racist.

“He is a mentally disturbed young man who didn’t receive proper treatment,” says Kennedy…

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic antisemitism Tagged With: Grafton Thomas, Monsey, New York


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Comments

  1. Michael Copeland says

    Jan 3, 2020 at 2:17 pm

    It seems likely that the hate crime charges will have a murder charge added.

  2. Dude says

    Jan 3, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    Now he fits the mold: typically mentally-challenged muslim hoping to get killed while trying to murder non-muslims so they can go immediately to paradise. Hence the fake suicide vest to invite a bullet in the head.

  3. Jim says

    Jan 3, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    We need to investigate why so many Muslims are mentally disturbed.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jan 3, 2020 at 6:51 pm

      Excellent idea, Jim!

  4. Crusades Were Right says

    Jan 3, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    Another one of those modern irregular verbs:

    “To hate-murder”
    I am a mentally-ill person-of-color
    You are a Muslim who has been radicalized on the internet and misunderstood his peaceful religion
    He is a white racist / Islamophobe / MAGA guy

    lol

  5. revereridesagain says

    Jan 3, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    Dare I ask why the “dietary supplements” are? Aside, I assume, from Stupid Pills?

    • Crusades Were Right says

      Jan 4, 2020 at 8:44 am

      Camel urine, perhaps? lol

  6. underbed cat says

    Jan 5, 2020 at 10:06 am

    I too. revereridesagain, wondered what the dietary supplement comment inferred, would that be a supplement to activate or reduce fear? Is this supplement requried to stay calm. Attending a mosque and praying, is going thru the process since he would learn to be a muslim. His mental illness over took his decision making for his religious peace most would think, to act so gruesome, unless they knew the text that had some different idea’s of attaining peace and how to view non beleivers.

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