Waisuddin Akbari said all Jews deserved death because of Israel’s alleged genocide in Gaza.
By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
Jewish groups and local politicians reacted with both fear and anger last week after a recent case came to light of a Toronto Muslim man being convicted for his threat to blow up “every synagogue” in the city.
Afghan-born Waisuddin Akbari, 41, was convicted in November for his plot, but the case only received broad news coverage on Tuesday evening.
“There are only so many times that police are going to foil a mass murder attack before it happens,” Jaime Kirzner Roberts, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Global News, a Canadian news network.
“How can the public feel safe when men like him are allowed to walk free? Where are our political leaders???” Roberts posted on X.
“It should be alarming not just for Canadian Jews, who have to attend synagogue and go to school with police protection, but for all Canadians, that such a thing is taking place,” said Noah Shack, the Interim President of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
On Wednesday, MP Ya’ara Saks, who represents the York region where Toronto is located, said in a statement that “It is unacceptable that Jewish communities continue to live in fear because of such hateful rhetoric and actions.”
“In recent months,” she continued, “we have seen an alarming rise in antisemitic incidents, from shooting and vandalized synagogues to online threats and violent plots. These are not isolated incidents — they reflect a troubling increase in hate that we must confront together.”
Akbari had gone to a car dealership in Aurora, a town north of Toronto, and discussions with the salesman had suddenly veered into a review of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip after Akbari said he couldn’t afford the interest rates on a car loan because “the Jews” controlled all financial matters around the world.
The salesman, Cameron Ahmad, testified in court that Akbari had said the money would be sent to Israel to fund their “genocide” of the Palestinians, that Israel was trying to enslave and poison the world, and that Jews and Israelis should be exterminated like cockroaches.
He told Akmad that since Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, they deserved to have genocide perpetrated on them.
“Before I go, I want you to remember my name and remember my face because the next time you see it, I’ll be on the news,” Akbari said, according to Ahmad.
“I know when I’m going to die because I’m going to plant a bomb in every synagogue in Toronto and blow them up to kill as many Jews as possible,” adding, “I’ll make sure those attacks are filmed and posted online so the world can see what I’ve done.”
Ahmad said he reported Akbari’s comments to the police instead of ignoring them because of the serious and calm way Akbari spoke when relaying this information to a complete stranger.
Akbari was arrested the next day and charged with one count of threatening property damage and one count of threatening death to people of the Jewish faith.
The judge did not find Akbari’s refutations convincing and convicted him since “The threats were delivered in a serious tone, and it does not matter whether Mr. Akbari intended to act on them or not. They clearly meet the legal definition of an unlawful threat to damage personal property and harm an ascertained group.”
The immigrant shwarma restaurant owner denied issuing any threats, telling Global News that he doesn’t even know what a synagogue is and that he was convicted because the prosecution and judge were racist.
The court documents showed that he had also claimed that he didn’t know anything about Jews or that they were even connected to Israel.
Akbari will be sentenced in May. He could get up to five years in jail for threatening death, and two years for his threat to property.