Dear Future Husband: If you ever abscond to Syria to join a motley band of terrorists, I will not come looking for you.
The rise of ISIS has inspired some truly ridiculous tales of total and complete insanity taking hold of people not currently living in the sandy hellscape of the Middle East. National Guardsmen, young men, newlyweds, and even schoolgirls have all attempted (some successfully) to break free the chains of democracy and join the cause in places like Syria and Iraq.
Most, if all of them, have done so knowing how terribly dangerous it is to even attempt to make friendly contact with ISIS. They also knew (and were enthusiastic about) the terror group’s rise in prominence and brutality, and that their tickets were one-way.
Of course, if a recent story out of the UK-by-way-of-Syria is correct, some of them are just there to pick up their husbands.
33 year-old Shukee Begum dragged herself and her children (once more: and her children) to Syria to find her husband, Jamal al-Harith. al-Harith did time in Gitmo, but was released and returned to his family; 18 months ago, however, he left the UK for Syria and joined up with ISIS.
Begum soon found herself trapped in a nightmare. During an interview with British media, she revealed that living amongst brutal terrorists does indeed suck.
This, and other revelations, from the Daily Mail:
“I was seeing on the news at this point that ISIS was going from bad to worse… So I decided that I was going to try and speak some sense into him,” she told Channel 4 news, referring to Islamic State by an alternative name.At first, Begum lived in a overcrowded safe house in the IS-controlled city of Raqqa with dozens of other women and children, many “crying” and “sick”.”There was a gangster kind of mentality among single women there. Violent talk, talking about war, killing,” Begum said.”They would sit together and huddle around their laptops and watch ISIS videos together and discuss them and everything. It was just not my cup of tea.”After she was reunited with her husband, who refused to help her leave, IS authorities would not allow her to go, Begum added.”This is what I want to make clear as well to other women thinking of coming into ISIS territory — that you can’t just expect to come into ISIS territory and then expect that you can just leave again easily,” Begum said.”There is no personal autonomy there at all.”
The things we do for love, right?
Fortunately, Begum smuggled herself and her children (once more: she brought her children INTO Syria) out of ISIS territory before actually becoming a hostage. She has yet to return to the UK, and isn’t sure if she’ll be able to.
That’s what happens when you go hang out with terrorists. It would be heartbreaking if it didn’t expose the complete and utter naïveté about ISIS some western countries still harbor.
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