The Devil’s In the Details

Remember the Arab truck driver who killed one person and injured 17 others on Naqba Day? He claimed he had a flat tyre. But a sheikh is claiming the devil made him do it!

A sheikh familiar with an Arab truck driver who went on a recent rampage in Tel Aviv says the man, Issa Ibrahim Islam, was “possessed by the devil” at the time of the incident.

The sheikh claims he treated Islam, who he said was in a difficult mental state before the incident took place. The truck driver prayed at his mosque frequently, the sheikh said.

On the recent “Nakba Day,” Islam went on a rampage with his truck in southern Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 17. The sheikh, who was interrogated by police Wednesday, said that Islam was “possessed by the devil,” which prompted him to press the gas pedal of his heavy truck.

Islam has been under arrest since the incident and continues to insist that the rampage was not a deliberate or terror-related act.

The sheikh said he treated Islam using alternative methods in the days before the incident. The treatment included rubbing oil on the suspect’s stomach while reciting Koran verses.

The sheikh was summoned for an interrogation after Islam’s relatives, including his brother, claimed that the terror suspect was in a difficult mental state, which prompted him to go on the rampage.

Islam’s attorney, Mufid Badir, told Ynet: “I asked the police before…to look into his mental history, in light of the medical and alternative treatments he underwent…I don’t understand how they gave him a license to drive a heavy truck given his mental state.”

Now compare this to what his relatives said after the accident:

The family of a Kfar Kassem resident strongly denies his involvement in a terror attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday. “He was probably tired,” a relative told Ynet.

The truck driver, who ran over some 15 vehicles and caused the death of one person and injured 17 others, is currently being questioned by police

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However, the driver’s relatives argue he had no malicious intent. They described an ambitious young man who was the only breadwinner in his family after his father became ill.

“My son doesn’t kill Jews,” his mother insisted. “I can’t wait to talk to him already, hear what happened and how he’s feeling. I’m asking the Israeli government to support him and prove to everyone that our son has nothing to do with the attack, and that it’s just the cause of a regular accident.

“My son is the breadwinner of the family. He built our house, bought a car. He has a lot of ambitions in life. He doesn’t even know how to curse and has always been kind to anyone he met.”

“Everything that’s happened to him is due to his tire exploding. That’s why he lost control of the steering wheel,” she added.

“My son left for work around 7:30 am on Sunday morning. He has always driven carefully and doesn’t go crazy on the road. Everybody in the village knows him. Everyone knows he doesn’t run wild. I don’t accept that people call my son a ‘terrorist’,” she added.

“Our son isn’t a terrorist. Everything that’s being said and all of the allegations have no basis,” a relative told Ynet. “There’s no way our son would do something like this. He’s a well respected man who’s built his future to become successful.”

The relative added that the suspect “has no connections to organizations like Hamas or Fatah. He’s not involved in politics at all. This accident has nothing to do with Nakba Day. We believe it happened because he was probably tired or something.”

Funny how back then, the relatives did not mention anything about him being in a “difficult mental state.” In fact, they made him out to be so competent, he was the only breadwinner in his family.

For a people who stay away from pork, they sure seem to be good at porkies.