The estranged relatives of Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani woman accused of shooting dead 14 people in California, say she and her father seem to have abandoned the family’s moderate Islam and become more radicalised during the years they spent in Saudi Arabia.
Malik, with her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, is accused of storming a gathering in San Bernardino, California, on December 2, and opening fire in America’s worst mass shooting in three years.
On Saturday, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed the couple as their followers. However, there is no evidence yet that the IS directed the attack or even knew the attackers.
Malik’s killing spree has horrified her Pakistani relatives. Her father had cut off contact with his family after a feud over inheritance, and moved to Saudi Arabia when his daughter was a toddler. There, it seems, he turned to a stricter form of Islam, reports Reuters.
From what we heard, they lived differently, their mindset is different. We are from a land of Sufi saints ... this is very shocking for us.School teacher Hifza Bibi, step-sister of Malik’s father to Reuters
Relatives described Malik as a “bright, religious” woman with a promising future.
The New York Times reports that despite Malik’s family feud, she returned to Pakistan in 2007 to study Pharmacology from a University in Multan.
Nisar Hussain, one of her professors told the Los Angeles Times that she was a “gifted” student who would top her class.
She was religious but a very normal person. She was obedient and would never create any problem in class. I cannot believe that she could murder people.Hussain to the Los Angeles Times
Another relative told the Los Angeles Times that her beliefs seemed to have changed during her time at the University. Her family was becoming worried about her radical views and posts on social media at the time.
Malik left the University in 2012 and moved to the United States two years later after she met her husband (and co-accused) Farroq through a dating website, reports The New York Times.