San Bernardino shooter's father says son was a fan of guns and ISIS, 'fixated' on Israel
Syed Farook, the presumed murderer of 14 people in San Bernardino, California, last week, was supposed to be named Rizwan, Farook's father, Syed Farook, told Paolo Mastrolilli of Italy's La Stampa, but the hospital workers in Illinois "were ignorant and they mixed up the names.... I am Syed." Mastrolilli caught up with Syed Farook Sr. in Corona, California, outside the house where Farook says he moved in with his other son, Raheel, in September.
Father of #SanBernardino shooter: Son supported #ISIS, was "fixated" on Israel https://t.co/jKg8lpPTqz pic.twitter.com/RsWrvKF8RA
— CNN International (@cnni) December 7, 2015
Did Syed Farook Jr. ever talk about terrorism and the Islamic State, Mastrolilli asked. "Of course," the father answered. "And who doesn't talk about them today? He said that he shares the ideology of [ISIS leader Abu Bakr] al Baghdadi to create an Islamic State, and he was fixated on Israel." (The father didn't seem too keen on Israel either, telling Mastrolilli, "I always repeated to him: Stay calm, have patience, within to years Israel won't exist anymore," because the Russians, Americans, and Chinese will move Israeli Jews to Ukraine.)
Syed Farook Sr. also said he didn't know if his son had been in contact with foreign terrorists ("In these times who can tell, with the internet and all that technology?"); that he has never even seen his son's wife, Tashfeen Malik ("not even covered with a burqa"); and that he sort of knew his son liked guns: "One time I saw him with a pistol, and that made me mad: 'In 45 years in the United States,' I yelled, 'I have never had a weapon.' He shrugged his shoulders and said: Too bad for you." The father also said that his son, like his estranged wife, was religiously conservative, but that he himself comes from the city and is a liberal.
You can read the entire interview at La Stampa, but keep in mind: Mastrolilli conducted the interview in English, wrote it up in Italian, and we have re-translated it into English, so something may have been lost.