An accused Hamas-linked terrorist who participated in horrors inflicted on Jewish people on Sabbath during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel has been granted Muslim religious accommodations while he’s jailed in Louisiana.
Mahmoud Amin Ya’Qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, asked a judge Friday to order US Marshals to accommodate his religious practices while he’s locked up on charges of taking part in atrocities on kibbutz Kfar Aza and then denying his involvement on a visa application before migrating to the US.
During a Friday hearing, Al-Muhtadi’s lawyers asked Magistrate Judge David Ayo to order federal authorities to provide him with a halal diet, allow to fast and carry out daily prayers.
“The US Marshalls shall accommodate the defendant to the extent that they can reasonably do so,” Ayo ordered.
The judge told Al-Muhtadi’s lawyers to keep in touch with the US Marshals about their ability to fulfill the religious requests, adding “the court will revisit when and as necessary should the need arise.”
Al-Muhtadi is due back in the Lafayette federal court on Wednesday to discuss the terms of his detention.
Al-Muhtadi, who lived in Gaza at the time, was arrested last week for allegedly taking part in the slaughter of 60 people at Kfar Aza — and giddily telling a fellow comrade in a call beforehand that the Oct. 7 offensive would spark “a third world war,” a criminal complaint alleged.
Al-Muhtadi, who led youths in the National Resistance Brigades (NRB), a military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), heard a call to arms by Hamas commander Mohammed Deif that tragic day and started rallying a group of men to join him in an ambush on the close by kibbutz, the feds claimed.
The Oct. 7 incursion — which resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 250 more —began around 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday when Jewish people were still observing Sabbath.
Sixty people were murdered and 19 kidnapped by Hamas and other militants in Kfar Aza alone — including the deaths of four Americans and the capture of one more, the complaint alleges.
Beforehand, Al-Muhtadi instructed his men in a series of calls to bring their rifles, ammunition and bulletproof vests and join him in the strike on Kfar Aza, the filing alleged.
Cellphone data placed him in the Kfar Aza area by 10:01 a.m. that same day, the court document claims.
In an earlier 8:42 a.m. call with another man, Al-Muhtadi said: “There is lots [sic] of soldiers [Israel Defense Forces soldiers] that have been kidnapped … it’s a game, which will be a good one.”
“If things go the way they should, Syria will take part, Lebanon will take part … it’s going to be a third world war … it will be a war of attritions. That will be perfect,” he said during the call, according to the complaint.
Less than a year after the invasion, Al-Muhtadi applied for a US visa falsely claiming he never murdered anyone, he never engaged in terrorism and wasn’t apart of such an organization, the feds allege.
He first moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Sept. 12, 2024 and was eventually tracked down by US authorities in Lafayette in June 2025.
Al-Muhtadi is charged with one count of fraud and misuse of a visa and one count of providing or attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted on the terrorism charge alone.
His arrest was the first one in the US of an individual accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 onslaught.
Last week, the remaining living hostages captured by Hamas were returned to Israel. Hamas has also been returning the remains of people who died in its captivity.
Al-Muhtadi’s lawyers didn’t immediately return a request for comment Monday.
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