A Muslim man who posed as an Orthodox Jew and claimed to work for the National Security Agency is now being looked into by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI became involved when Eliyah Hawila’s wife, identified only as Sally, discovered his Lebanese passport and asked him about it. Hawila, 23, claimed to be an NSA agent and allegedly produced a “fake letter” from coworkers at the agency to prove his employment. She then immediately told her friends and family, who in turn contacted authorities, according to the Daily Mail.
“My lying is not justified, but at the same time, I lied because I was in pain, but I want to correct my mistake,” Hawila said. “I want them to understand where my pain is coming from. Things started coming out and the rumors started and they took her away from me, they separated her away from me.”
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The FBI suspected Hawila, whose real name is Ali Hassan Hawila, could be working for a terrorist group and posed as a Jew to infiltrate the Jewish community. So far, the agency has found nothing to suggest he was involved in terrorism-related activities or falsified any document, the outlet reported.
Hawila said he was born into a Shi’ite Muslim household in Lebanon but became obsessed with Judaism during his teenage years. He said he and his family eventually moved to the United States legally and looked for a synagogue to convert. After he was initially rejected by one of the synagogues he attended, he claimed to be Jewish and said his name was Eliyah “because I love the story of the prophet Elijah,” according to the outlet.
Hawila, who said he never meant to hurt his wife, never brought up any of his Lebanese or Islamic history when he and Sally began dating online. To make his Judaism more convincing, he learned Hebrew to recite Jewish prayers and signed up for a local Chabad community center at his school, Texas A&M University, where he could study the Torah, the report said. He also performed his Jewish heritage by making a lineage of fake Ashkenazi names, one of which was Meyer Lansky, the name of a former Jewish gangster, the outlet reported.
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Hawila’s wife is reportedly living in a safe house.
Representatives for the FBI did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
