San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook shared ISIS’ ideology, wanted to see the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and was fixated with Israel, Farook’s father told an Italian newspaper during an interview in which he also offered his own unusual ideas about Israel.
“My son said that he shared [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] Al Baghdadi’s ideology and supported the creation of the Islamic State,” said Farook's dad, also named Syed Farook, who lives in Corona, Calif., with another son who is a Navy veteran. “He was also obsessed with Israel.”
“I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist anymore,” the elder Farook told La Stampa in an article published Sunday. The foreign language daily’s report was translated in part by The Times of Israel.
“Geopolitics is changing: Russia, China and America don’t want Jews there anymore. They are going to bring the Jews back to Ukraine. What is the point of fighting? We have already done it and we lost. Israel is not to be fought with weapons, but with politics. But he did not listen to me, he was obsessed,” the father said in the interview, according to The Times of Israel.
“I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist anymore."
The younger Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, slaughtered 14 people at a Christmas party on Dec. 2. Farook and Malik were killed during a shootout with police later that day.
The elder Farook’s ex-wife and the mother of his children, Rafia, said in court papers filed during divorce proceedings in 2006 that her then-husband had a history of substance abuse.
“My husband is mentally ill and is on medication but is also an alcoholic and drinks with the medicine,” she said, according to The New York Times.
He disputed the allegations.
“[Farook’s] mother is very religious, as he was, and they united against me,” the father said. “Once we had a dispute over the historical figure of Jesus. My son called me a godless person and he decided that my marriage with my wife had to end. They destroyed the family.”
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