What They Won't Tell You About the Chabad 770 Ramming Attack

When Dan Sohail rammed his vehicle into the entrance of 770 Eastern Parkway, the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn. on January 28, 2026, the timing was no coincidence. The attack occurred on the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson becoming the Rebbe, moments after over 4,000 Jewish students from 56 yeshivas worldwide had gathered for the annual "Hour with the Rebbe" farbrengen. Yet within hours, mainstream media outlets began constructing a narrative that would deflect attention from what investigators called a hate crime targeting a Jewish institution: Sohail was mentally ill, they reported, upset that his desire to convert to Judaism had been "rebuffed."

The following analysis examines how this narrative emerged, what evidence contradicts it, and why the pattern mirrors previous cases where Islamic antisemitism was obscured by claims of mental illness.

THE ATTACK: TIMING AND PREMEDITATION

On January 28, 2026, Collive reported: "A vehicle rammed into one of the entrances of 770 Eastern Parkway, the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, on Wednesday evening, prompting a large emergency response. Shmira and the NYPD evacuated the building as a crime scene was established around 770...Video shared from the scene shows the driver repeatedly ramming into the shul's double doors before being taken into custody by police."

The timing of the attack indicates Sohail was trying to maximize the number of victims. Algemeiner reported: "The car ramming took place the same day as the 75th anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson being chosen as the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement."

Some claim Sohail had "mental illness." However, a person can fake insanity before a terrorist attack to claim insanity afterward. Mentally disturbed individuals don't typically wait to attack to maximize casualties, they act immediately.

Collive reported: "According to Yaacov Behrman, spokesperson for Chabad, a group of bochurim interacted with the suspect roughly an hour before the attack. The man approached them near 770 and asked when the farbrengen for Yud Shevat, the yartzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the day the Rebbe assumed leadership, was taking place."

Collive also reported: "Just minutes before the harrowing car ramming attack, over 4,000 Bochurim from 56 yeshivos around the globe gathered at 770 Eastern Parkway for the 14th annual 'Hour with the Rebbe.'"

Is it a coincidence Dan Sohail chose to attack when he knew the synagogue would be crowded, or was he trying to maximize the number of victims?

THE MEDIA NARRATIVE: "REBUFFED CONVERSION" AND "MENTAL ILLNESS"

The mainstream media attempted to spin the narrative, claiming that a jihadist attack on Chabad 770 during a Yud Shevat farbrengen actually happened because Sohail had "mental illness" and was "upset" that his intention to convert to Judaism was "rebuffed."

On January 29, 2026, the NY Daily News reported: "Dan Sohail was charged Thursday with attempted assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment. Because the building he rammed was a Jewish institution, all of his charges were upgraded to hate crimes, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.

"Dan had visited synagogues recently in an effort to convert but had been rebuffed, law enforcement sources said. Dan had visited the Chabad movement's international headquarters on Eastern Parkway at least once before, sources said. In some Jewish traditions, would-be converts are turned away three times as a test of their sincerity before being welcomed into the fold."

ABC7NY reported: "They welcomed him, he was dancing with them, and apparently there were multiple Chabad communities in New Jersey that he had approached, and he was somehow upset that they weren't more accepting of him, and lashed out at Chabad as a result, that's my understanding," said Scott Richman, Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

The narrative being pushed, that Sohail wanted to convert and was "rebuffed," is an attempt to blame the Jews for being attacked by an antisemite.

EVIDENCE CONTRADICTS THE CONVERSION NARRATIVE

Reports that Sohail wanted to convert appear to be false. The Forward reported: "Rabbi Levi Azimov, who leads Chabad of South Brunswick in New Jersey, said Sohail attended a Purim service at Chabad in March of last year. Sohail visited there twice more seeking spiritual guidance, Azimov told the Forward, though he did not express interest in converting to Judaism."

Sohail also lied, claiming he was Jewish to infiltrate a synagogue, which led yeshiva students to put tefillin on him and conduct a bar mitzvah ceremony. They would not have done this had he not lied about being Jewish.

Jfeed reports: "Newly obtained footage reveals that the suspect responsible for the crash had successfully infiltrated the building approximately two weeks earlier, spending significant time inside the main study hall. In the video, the individual is seen wearing the exact same clothing he wore during the later ramming attack, raising fears that his earlier visit was a reconnaissance mission designed to test the building's vulnerabilities. The revelation has sent shockwaves through the Crown Heights community, as it appears the suspect exploited the welcoming nature of the institution to gain proximity to students and staff under false pretenses.

"According to witnesses and sources familiar with the earlier encounter, the man entered the world famous synagogue and told the students inside that he was Jewish. In an act of traditional hospitality, the community embraced him, and after he claimed he had never celebrated his religious coming of age, an impromptu bar mitzvah ceremony was organized. The suspect was seen dancing with students in the study hall and even participated in the ritual of putting on tefillin. It has since been confirmed by sources within the kehilla that the man is not Jewish and had reportedly been visiting multiple yeshivas throughout Brooklyn making similar fraudulent claims."

THE MENTAL ILLNESS DEFENSE

Not only is the mainstream media trying to push the false narrative that Sohail's attack was because he was "upset" that his intention to convert to Judaism was "rebuffed," they are also trying to push the false narrative that he had "mental illness."

USA Today reported: "Sohail's father told the New York Daily News on Jan. 29 that his son had been considering converting to Judaism and that he struggles with mental illness."

NBC reported: "Law enforcement sources also said the driver has a history of mental health issues."

The New York Times reported: "The New York City police said they had charged a man with reckless endangerment and attempted assault on Thursday after he rammed his vehicle repeatedly into the headquarters of Chabad Lubavitch, the Hasidic Jewish group, in Brooklyn. All four charges against Dan Sohail, 36, will be considered hate crimes, the chief of detectives, Joseph Kenny, said on Thursday at a news conference in Manhattan. 'He basically attacked a Jewish institution,' Chief Kenny said. 'This is a synagogue. It's clearly marked a synagogue.'

"The man appeared to be emotionally disturbed during the incident, according to three law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation.

"In an interview on Thursday, his father, Sohail Majid Butt, 63, said that his son had been raised in a largely secular, multifaith home; his father is Muslim, and his mother is Catholic."

According to Islam, if the father is a Muslim, the children are Muslims, so Dan Sohail is Muslim.

The mainstream media is trying to push the narrative that the Muslim who attacked 770 Chabad Headquarters in NY did so because he had mental issues and because his conversion to Judaism was rejected. According to them, the attack has nothing to do with Islam.

THE SARAH HALIMI PRECEDENT

Neither Dan Sohail nor the murderer of Sarah Halimi committed crimes because of "mental illness" - they are jihadists.

In May 2021, the BBC reported: "Sarah Halimi was a Jewish, 65-year-old, former kindergarten director, who in April 2017 was beaten, then thrown to her death from her flat in north-east Paris. The killer was Kobili Traoré, a Muslim of Malian origin who was her neighbour. During the attack, which lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, he chanted verses from the Koran and shouted 'Allahu Akbar', God is greatest.

"Two weeks ago, a decision by France's highest court of appeal, the Cour de Cassation, triggered a storm of indignation, primarily but not solely in France's Jewish community. Citing Article 122 of the Penal Code, the judges ruled that Traoré had been undergoing a 'psychotic episode' at the time of the attack and that his 'discernment' had been 'abolished'...And so the Cour de Cassation ruled that Kobili Traoré should not stand trial, but remain in the secure hospital where he has been kept ever since the murder."

ANTISEMITISM IN ISLAMIC TEXTS

Islam calls for the murder of Jews. Stop pretending Islam has nothing to do with Dan Sohail's attack or Sarah Halimi's murder. Stop trying to dissimulate jihad to protect a narrative.

Tim Dieppe wrote in Christian Concern: "In May 2024, I was invited to debate with Reza Aslan on the question 'Is Islam antisemitic?' I was surprised to be asked, since Reza is a professor at University of California, Riverside, and has written two books which have reached the New York Times bestseller list. After questioning whether I was really the right person, and praying about it and discussing with others, I agreed to the debate. The organisers had clearly seen my earlier article 'Is Islam antisemitic?,' and were impressed with my engagement with the texts. In this series I will demonstrate that Islam, as defined by its texts, is antisemitic. We will look at antisemitism in the Qur'an, in the hadith, in the Sirah (or biographies of Muhammad), amongst Islamic scholars, and in Islamic history."

"Tim Dieppe continues his series on antisemitism in Islam, looking at the evidence in the Hadith and Sirah. The first part of my series looked through the evidence of antisemitism in the Qur'an and its prominence in daily prayers. But it's not just the Qur'an itself that contains these sentiments. They are borne out in the Hadith (Islamic reports and sayings attributed to Muhammad) and Sirah (Islamic biographies of Muhammad)...The most famous antisemitic hadith is the so-called apocalyptic hadith about killing Jews. 'Allah's Messenger said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'"' (Sahih Bukhari 4:52:177; see also Sahih Bukhari 4:52:176; Sahih Muslim 41:6985) This hadith was cited in Hamas's founding charter, article seven."

There is antisemitism in Islam and that is what causes persecution of Jews.

ISLAM AS POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

Dr. Michael Krampner wrote in Arutz 7: "Danny Burmawi, who grew up Moslem in Jordan, converted to Christianity as a young man and moved to Lebanon where he worked for many years for Christian relief organizations and who also earned a graduate degree in theology, has just the set of skills necessary for analyzing Islam and how it currently impacts Israel and the West. Because of that background he has both an insider's understanding of Islam, is familiar with its foundational texts in the original Arabic and the culture that Islam has created and is also able to step back and view Islam dispassionately.

"His new book, 'Islam, Israel and the West: A Former Muslim's Analysis' (Gerasa Books, 2025) clearly describes and analyzes Islam as a lived ideology, an ideology that is not a religion like others in the West but an aggressive and expansionist political ideology.

"But, he posits, Islam's real innovation was that although 'Allah remained ultimate in theory…Muhammed became the necessary mediator, interpreter and access point through whom divine will was revealed and enforced.' Muhammed's life story and his sayings therefore eclipse the Qu'ran as the sources of religious authority and unlike the Hebrew prophets who are merely messengers, Muhammed's life itself became the message. As Burmawi explains 'In Judaism and Christianity the man serves the text. In Islam the text serves the man.' Muhammed is uncritically considered the ultimate example of all values. That is why blasphemy laws are so common in the Moslem world, not to protect Allah's honor, but to protect Muhammed's. It is also why Moslems often react violently (as in the famous Charlie Hebdo case in France, or by trying to murder the author Salman Rushdie) to criticism of Muhammed. As the example of religious perfection Muhammed is considered beyond criticism. In the Moslem world Jews and Christians are not considered infidels because they deny G-d but because they deny Muhammed.

"Because Muhammed's life is supposed to be the model for all things, Islam cannot be apolitical. Muhammed was political. His community was a state not a church, a mosque or a synagogue. Once he moved to Medina he was in charge of governance, warfare (Jihad), taxation, punishment, and treaty-making. He did not merely preach Jihad, he led it. His ideology was and is aggressively expansionist and supremacist. His life was and is the model of how to do these political things and that makes Islam fundamentally different than Judaism and Christianity. It makes Islam as much a political ideology as a religion. The Qu'ran repeatedly emphasizes the duty to establish Islam and Sharia law in the world as a unifying political system. 'This is not symbolic,' says Burmawi. Rather, 'It is expansionist in design and strategic in execution.'"

INCITEMENT AND VIOLENCE

Islamic intolerance and violence against Jews is a result of incitement.

On May 7, 2019, the Times of Israel reported: "A Philadelphia city commission said Monday it's investigating an event last month at which Muslim children were captured on video speaking in Arabic about beheadings and the liberation of Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations launched a probe into the April 17 gathering at the Muslim American Society's Philadelphia chapter. A video uploaded to the chapter's Facebook page shows children moving to a revolutionary anthem often used by Islamist groups, with mentions of 'martyrs,' 'traitors' and violent rebellion. Two young girls read from a prepared text. One says, 'We will chop off their heads, and we will liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque.'"

On July 21, 2017, the Jerusalem Post reported: "Egyptian-born American preacher Ammar Shahin gave the sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis California. In a July 21 lecture posted on the Davis Masjid YouTube channel, Muslim preacher Ammar Shahin spoke in English and Arabic about how all Muslims, not only Palestinians or Syrians, will be called upon to kill all the Jews on 'the last day.'

"In a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Shahin also stressed that the Hadith (oral tradition of sayings attributed to the prophet of Islam) does not say where the final battle will take place. 'If it is in Palestine,' for example, 'or another place,' hinting at the possibility that such a battle could happen in the United States or Europe as well. He also prayed that al-Aksa mosque be liberated from 'the filth of the Jews.'"

The attack on Chabad 770 was not a spontaneous act by a disturbed individual rejected by a community. The evidence tells a different story: a Muslim man who lied about his identity to gain access to Jewish institutions, conducted reconnaissance visits wearing the same clothes he would later wear during the attack, inquired about the timing of major gatherings, and struck on the 75th anniversary of the Rebbe's leadership when over 4,000 students had assembled—maximizing potential casualties.

Yet within hours of the attack, a protective narrative emerged: mental illness, rejected conversion, the community's fault for not being "welcoming enough." This pattern—seen previously in the Sarah Halimi murder case in France—represents a dangerous refusal to acknowledge ideologically motivated antisemitic violence rooted in Islamic texts and teachings.

The mainstream media's rush to explain away Islamic antisemitism as mental illness or personal grievance does more than distort individual cases. It prevents honest discussion of the documented antisemitism in Islamic scripture, the incitement in mosques and Islamic schools across the West, and the theological justifications used by attackers who shout "Allahu Akbar" while murdering Jews.

When we refuse to identify the ideological source of antisemitic violence, we guarantee more Jewish victims. When we blame Jewish communities for attacks against them, we compound the injury with obscene moral inversion. And when we accept "mental illness" as an all-purpose explanation for jihadist violence, we abandon the most basic responsibility of journalism: to tell the truth.

Dan Sohail knew exactly what he was doing, when to do it, and why. The question is whether Western societies will finally acknowledge what their own citizens already know: that antisemitic violence rooted in Islamic ideology is real, it is growing, and no amount of narrative manipulation will make it disappear.

The Jewish community cannot afford another Sarah Halimi verdict. Neither can Western civilization.

Ezequiel Doiny is author of "Obama's assault on Jerusalem's Western Wall" and "Jerusalem is the Spiritual capital of Judaism while Mecca is the Spiritual Capital of Islam"