Malik Faisal Akram said his decision to kidnap a rabbi and three others at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, on Saturday was his own declaration of war on America, claiming: "I've come to die", the Daily Mail reported. The Blackburn terrorist who held up a synagogue ranted about "f***ing Jews" and urged more British Muslims to launch jihad in the United States in a disturbing final phone call to his family, minutes before he was shot dead following the hostage standoff in Texas, the report said.

His ranting about "f***ing Jews" further undermines the FBI's initial bizarre and insulting claims that the British terrorist's attack wasn't 'specifically' anti-Semitic, despite his decision to target a synagogue 4,500 miles from home and threat to blow it up after two years of planning, the report said.

Malik Faisal Akram said kidnapping was his declaration of war on America. | Wikimedia Commons

Father-of-six Akram, who had been in the US for a fortnight and bought his gun 'off the street' in Texas, had said: "I've told my kids to man up. Don't cry at my funeral. I've been praying to Allah for two years for this. I'm coming home in a body bag." In a recording of his last phone call to his brother Gulbar, 43, Akram said he had promised their younger sibling Gulzameer, who died of Covid last year, 'that I'd go down a martyr', the report added.

It came as two men were arrested in Manchester and Birmingham by British counter-terrorism police, who are working with the FBI. Gulbar Akram told him what he was doing was a 'sin' and urged him to give himself up, claiming he could 'do a little time' in prison and come back to Blackburn. But Faisal exploded with rage, screaming: "I'd rather live one day as a lion than 100 years as a jackal. I'm going to go toe-to-toe with [police] and they can shoot me dead. I'm coming home in a body bag," as per the report. (IANS/ MBI)

(Keywords: Texas Hostage taker, Body Bag, malik faisal akram, jews, terrorism, kidnapping, fbi, home, rage)