The US suspect accused of torching Mississippi’s largest synagogue posted an antisemitic cartoon on Instagram shortly before his attack, and built a website for a strange brand of Christian “scripture-backed fitness” that relied heavily on Jewish sources. But little in his online presence would have indicated beforehand that he was preparing for an arson attack.

On Monday, Stephen Spencer Pittman, 19, confessed to setting the Beth Israel Congregation on fire at around 3 a.m. Saturday morning, according to a criminal complaint filed in the federal Southern District court of Mississippi.

He referred to the temple as the “synagogue of Satan” during his confession, and said he laughed as he told his father what he did.

The blaze destroyed portions of the synagogue building and rendered the synagogue unusable for the foreseeable future.

Pittman is expected to face preliminary court hearings on Tuesday, January 20. He is charged with first-degree arson against a place of worship, a crime that comes with a prison sentence of five to 30 years and restitution for damages caused. If the court determines that his actions were motivated by hate, that term may be doubled, according to a statement by the district attorney.

The federal government has not yet filed hate-crime charges against Pittman.

According to the local news site Mississippi Today, Pittman grew up in Madison, one of Mississippi’s wealthiest cities, and seemed like an unlikely person to commit a hate crime. He was an honor roll student at the private Catholic school he attended, and played on the baseball team at Coahoma Community College, where he studied after graduating high school. Until shortly before he attacked Beth Israel on January 10, he mainly used his numerous social media accounts to post about baseball, Christianity and his exercise routines.

But Pittman’s friends said he “changed a lot” in recent years, the report said, as he began bragging about money on social media and promoting questionable health trends as part of a “Christian diet.”

Posts included videos of himself........

© The Times of Israel