The Blackburn terrorist shot dead as he held up a synagogue in the US had previously been referred to counterextremism scheme Prevent, it has today been revealed.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had also been investigated by MI5 in 2020. However the father-of-six, who was shot dead by FBI SWAT teams last week while holding up a Texas synagogue, was not considered a terrorist threat.
The fresh revelations will heap yet more pressure on the Home Office over the anti-terror programme, which is already under scrutiny following the death of MP Sir David Amess.
Ali Harbi Ali, 25, the man who is accused of, and denies, murdering the Tory MP in a knife attack in his constituency of Southend in October, had been referred to Prevent some years ago.
And there was outrage last year after it was revealed the anti-extremism programme had been warned by refugee groups that Reading terrorist Khairi Saadallah, 27, who stabbed to death three friends in the Berkshire town, would carry out a 'London Bridge style' attack.
The Home Office have refused to comment on the claims, first reported in The Times, saying that Akram's death is the subject of a police investigation.
The Blackburn terrorist shot dead as he held up a synagogue in the US had previously been referred to counterextremism scheme Prevent, it has today been revealed
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had also been investigated by MI5 in 2020. However the father-of-six, who was shot dead by FBI SWAT teams last week while holding up a Texas synagogue, was not considered a terrorist threat
The FBI believe he bought a gun on the streets and armed himself with it when he entered the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue (pictured) in Colleyville, Texas last Saturday
The paper reports that the referral was made in 2016, as Akram's marriage broke down.
His brother, Gulbar Akram reportedly told the paper that his sibling was 'bitter' about his ex-wife Farzana after she took custody of their six children.
Under the Prevent programme, local authority staff and other professionals such as doctors, teachers and social workers have a duty to flag concerns about an individual being radicalised or drawn into a terrorism.
This report is then be passed to a local official charged with deciding whether the tip-off merits a formal referral. Prevent referrals are handled by expert officers in the local police force.
A flow diagram showing how the Prevent process works
Cases are then categorised depending on the nature of the individual's alleged beliefs - based on evidence ranging from comments they have been overheard saying to their social media history.
People who are not viewed as either far-right or Islamist are categorised as having a 'mixed, unstable or unclear' ideology.
Less serious reports may be sent to council services, which could include parenting support for families whose children have been watching inappropriate videos online.
This graph shows the types of professionals who make the initial referrals
Serious reports are forwarded on to Prevent's Channel stage, at which a panel of local police, healthcare specialists and social workers meeting monthly will consider the case.
At this stage, counter-terror police will be involved and will receive information from counsellors, social workers or theological mentors working with the individual concerned.
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The marriage had been arranged in 2004 in the village of Jandala, about 70 miles southeast of Islamabad, where her family remained.
Family members told the Times that Akram, who ran a chain of pharmacies in the north-west, had helped pay for their family's mansion - said to be the 'second biggest house' in the village.
'He paid for all her brothers to get jobs abroad and paid for her father’s cancer drugs and treatments,' Mr Akram said.
'The pharmacy chain was in his wife’s name. He was bitter because he felt like she took everything away from him when they split up, especially his children.'
It is understood that Akram was given a 28-day domestic violence protection order at a magistrates’ court in May 2016.
His wife moved with the children to Liverpool and then to Manchester. His two eldest son would visit him in Blackburn.
Family had previously told MailOnline how Akram's descent into more extreme religious views and his controlling behaviour had led to the marriage breakdown.
As a result of the breakdown, Akram shut down the pharmacies, while Prevent stepped in amid concerns of extremism.
In 2020 MI5 also investigated Akram, but decided he was not a threat.
Responding to the reports, a Home Office spokesperson said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing police investigation.'
The latest claims come after it was revealed Akram had 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 just minutes before he was shot dead, it was revealed today.
It is said his decision to kidnap a rabbi and three others at the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville on Saturday was his own declaration of war on America, claiming: 'I've come to die'.
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', adding: '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'.
Akram, who had been in the US for a fortnight and bought his gun 'off the street' in Texas, said: 'I'm opening the doors for every youngster in England to enter America and f*** with them'. And in a message for fellow jihadists he said: 'Live your f***ing life bro, you f***ing coward. We're coming to f***ing America. F*** them if they want to f*** with us. We'll give them f***ing war'.
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 threaten to blow it up after two years of planning.
Within hours of the attack Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the 10-hour hostage siege a 'terrible and anti-Semitic act of terrorism' - but it took the FBI almost 48 hours to backtrack and come to the same conclusion.
The extraordinary rant, revealed in audio leaked to the Jewish Chronicle and where he claims to have been planning an attack on US soil for two years, also piles further embarrassment on MI5 and their failure to put him on a transatlantic no-fly list.
British spies watched him for a month at the end of December 2020 but decided he posed no risk, despite multiple reports he had been radicalised.
He had also ceased to worship at his father's mosque and began attending meetings of a sect set up to 'purify' Islam and banned in Saudi Arabia as 'one of the gates of terrorism'. Akram also had a criminal record dating back more than 25 years.
It came as two men were arrested in Manchester and Birmingham by British counter-terrorism police, who are working with the FBI.
The 44-year-old from Blackburn arrived in the US at New York's JFK airport on a tourist visa in late December. But new details show that despite having been investigated by MI5, no red flags were raised and he was allowed to enter the country
Police are piecing together the terrorist's final movements after arriving at JFK airport by January 2 before staying in a homeless hostel run by a Christian charity in Dallas before launching the attack on January 15
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
