Last Wednesday, 14 people were killed by a Muslim couple at a civic-services center in San Bernardino, California. While the motives of the terrorist couple are still unclear, the father of shooter Syed Rizwan Farook admitted that his son was a supporter of the notorious Islamic State group.
TIME Magazine reports that Mr. Farook (who carries the same name with his son) told Italian newspaper La Stampa that the terrorist supported the ideology of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"He said he shared the ideology of al-Baghdadi to create an Islamic state, and he was obsessed with Israel," the suspect's father told the newspaper as translated by USA Today. "I kept telling him always: stay calm, be patient, in two years Israel will no longer exist."
In his previous interview with New York Daily News, Farook also said that his son was "very religious." "He would go to work, come back, go to pray, come back. He's Muslim."
According to Federal investigators, the younger Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, radicalized her husband into supporting the ISIS. Malik reportedly pledged her allegiance to the Islamic group in a Facebook post which came out around the same time the couple opened fire.
Farook, 28, and Malik, 29 were killed by the police in a deadly shootout hours after their attack. While the investigators still continue to dig what motivated them to kill people, FBI Los Angeles office assistant director David Bowdich told reporters in a news briefing that the couple underwent target practice within the city.
"That target practice, on one occasion, was done within days of this event," Bodwich said.
In his national address on Sunday, President Barack Obama said the couple "had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a perverted interpretation of Islam that calls for war against America and the West."
