(JTA) — The family of one of the Paris attackers said they are not anti-Semitic.
The mother and brother of Omar Ismaïl Mostefaï, one of the terrorists who shot up the Bataclan theater, called his actions “inexcusable” and “monstrous” through tears on the widely watched French television channel Canal Plus on Wednesday night.
Mostefaï’s brother, whose face and name were not shown for security reasons, also said that on the night of the attacks, he and his wife attended a show by Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, the French comic who has multiple convictions for inciting racial hatred against Jews.
“We were at a Dieudonne show Friday night, but we are not anti-Semites,” Mostefaï’s brother said.
Mostefaï’s family had not heard from him in two to three years, his brother estimated.
Mostefaï, the son of an Algerian father and Portuguese mother, converted to Islam.
“He became a monster,” Mostefaï’s brother said. “He’s not my brother.”
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