US shooter wife attended Pakistan religious school
Print Edition
The woman who along with her husband shot dead 14 people in California, United States, last week attended one of Pakistan’s most high-profile religious seminaries for women, the madrassa confirmed yesterday.
Tashfeen Malik, 29, was enrolled in 2013 at the al-Huda Institute in Multan, which targets middle-class women seeking to come closer to Islam and has offices in the US, the United Arab Emirates, India and the United Kingdom, said Imran Amir, a seminary official.
The institute has no known extremist links, though it has come under fire in the past from critics who say its ideology echoes that of the Taliban.
But her attendance offers fresh insight into Malik’s journey towards Islamic extremism. This likely began with her upbringing in Saudi Arabia, continued during her time as a student in Pakistan and culminated with her swearing allegiance to the Islamic State group shortly before her killing spree.
Malik and her husband Syed Farook, 28, were hailed as “soldiers” of the self-proclaimed caliphate following the massacre last Wednesday at a social services center in San Bernardino.
Investigators suspect that Malik, who went to the US on a fiancee’s visa and spent extended periods of time in both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, may have radicalized her husband.
The probe is trying to establish if she had contact with Islamic radicals in either country.
Malik was enrolled in classes including translation of the Koran in 2013, said Amir.
“But she did not complete her course and was here only for a short time,” he added.
A teacher who gave her name only as Muqadas also confirmed that Malik did not finish the two-year course. “She was a good girl. I don’t know why she left or what happened to her.”
Malik did not travel to the US with her husband until 2014.
Fellow classmates at the Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, where Malik studied pharmacology from 2007-2012, said she also went to the madrassa after classes during her final two years at the university, though informally.
Farrukh Saleem, a spokeswoman for al-Huda, said the organization preaches “the peaceful teachings of Islam and the prophet of Islam”.
Al-Huda, founded in 1994 by Farhat Hashmi, is one of the best-known female madrassas in Pakistan where religious seminaries are thought to teach hundreds of thousands of students each year.
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