One brother liked to party and chase girls.
One brother liked to party and chase girls. After high school, moved by what he saw as his patriotic duty, he enlisted in the Navy and received two medals recognising his contributions to “the global war on terror.” The other was de-eply religious and became increasingly intolerant, ultimately nursing a growing hatred that led him, along with his wife, to open fire on a San Bernardino holiday party last week.
Syed Raheel Farook and his younger brother Syed Rizwan Farook grew up in the same house, attended the same high school two years apart and, as teenagers, often sociali-sed in the same groups. But as they grew older their paths diverged.
Rizwan is now dead, gunned down by the poli-ce in Southern California after joining with his wife in killing 14 people and injuring 21. Mr Raheel is alive and left to wonder what went wrong.
The contrasting lives of the Farook brothers, described by friends, neighbours and former classmates who knew them both, is a disturbing tale, in part because there are so few clues to why they turned out so differently.
Raheel used to go to Friday prayers, but he also liked to drink and had a girlfriend in high school who wasn’t Mus-lim. Rizwan was quieter and more serious - and far more religious. Only with his older brother, friends said, did they see Rizwan lose his temper. When Rizwan joined the dating site bestmuslim.com in 2013, his profile described how he spent much of his free time “memorising the Quran and learning more about the religion.”
Attorney David Chesley said on Monday that Mr Raheel “is very upset with his brother.”
