The family of Shamima Begum, who joined the Islamic State group in Syria aged 15, say they plan to challenge the move to strip her of UK citizenship.
Her family's lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said they were considering "all legal avenues" to contest the decision.
Government sources said it was possible to strip the 19-year-old of British nationality as she was eligible for citizenship of another country.
Ms Begum, who left east London in 2015, had said she wanted to return home.
She told ITV news it was "kind of heart-breaking to read" of the Home Office decision, adding that it was "unjust on me and my son".
Ms Begum was found in a Syrian refugee camp last week after reportedly leaving Baghuz - IS's last stronghold - and gave birth to a son at the weekend.
A Home Office spokesperson said the department did not comment on individual cases but decisions to remove citizenship were "based on all available evidence and not taken lightly".
The spokesperson said: "In recent days the home secretary has clearly stated that his priority is the safety and security of Britain and the people who live here."
Bangladesh link
Ms Begum is believed to be of Bangladeshi heritage but when asked by the BBC, she said she did not have a Bangladeshi passport and had never been to the country.
Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said that if Ms Begum's mother was a Bangladeshi national - as is believed to be the case - under Bangladesh law Ms Begum would be too.
However, the family's lawyer Mr Akunjee told the Independent that the Bangladeshi government "does not know who she is".
He said: "Our position is that to all practical purposes she has been made stateless."
Under the 1981 British Nationality Act, a person can be deprived of their citizenship if the home secretary is satisfied it would be "conducive to the public good" and they would not become stateless as a result.
Lord Carlile said the nationality of Ms Begum's baby was "even more complicated".
As the baby's father is believed to be Dutch, he may be entitled to Dutch nationality as well as British and "probably Bangladesh nationality".
A child born to a British parent before they are deprived of their citizenship would still be considered British.
While it would theoretically be possible for the UK to then remove citizenship from the child, officials would need to balance their rights against any potential threat they posed.
What are Ms Begum's rights to appeal?
Ms Begum has the right to challenge the Home Office's decision either by tribunal or judicial review, said Lord Carlile.
Lord Carlile told BBC Breakfast: "The test will be of reasonableness and proportionality so she would have to establish that the home secretary acted in an entirely disproportionate way in removing her nationality.
"That might be a difficult challenge for her because he appears to have acted within the law if it is indeed the case that she is entitled to Bangladesh nationality."
He said it was a "complex issue" which "could run for a very long time through the courts", and Ms Begum may likely stay where she is "for maybe two years at least".
ITV News obtained the letter sent to Ms Begum's mother, asking her to inform her daughter of the government's decision.
Photo:
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly beheaded a 15-year-old boy for listening to Western pop music and shot dead two others for missing Friday prayers, as part of a wider crackdown in the group's stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq. According to local sources, reported by Kurdish media, the teenager named Ayham Hussein was caught during a patrol by Isis fighters, listening to Western music from his CD player in his father's grocery store, in the west of the city. Brought before a Sharia court, the boy was sentenced to death by beheading, which took place in a public square. His body was handed to his parents last Tuesday for burial. Separately, two young men were arrested last week for failing to attend Friday prayers at the main mosque in Mosul. Both were shot dead outside the same mosque on Sunday. The execution took place after a member of the Sharia Court read a statement vowing anyone who misses the prayers at the mosque to face the “same punishment." In late January, a 14-year-old was reportedly beheaded on similar charges. A witness said the boy’s parents were "forced to witness the beheading of their own son”. Reports from Mosul also indicate that four women victims of rape were stoned to death for adultery. (
Read more).
Dal Babu, a former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent and friend of Ms Begum's family, said they were "very surprised" by what seemed to be a "kneejerk reaction" by the Home Office.
Stressing that Ms Begum had never been to Bangladesh, Mr Babu said: "It seems to be a bizarre decision and I'm not entirely sure how that will stand up legally."
Former Conservative Home Secretary Ken Clarke said turning people away would be a "great boost for jihadism" as the "hundreds of foreign jihadis stuck in camps in northern Syria" would be further radicalised, he said.
Islamic State has lost most of the territory it once controlled, but between 1,000 and 1,500 militants are believed to be left in a 50 sq km (20 sq mile) area near Syria's border with Iraq.
Mr Javid told MPs earlier this week that more than 100 dual nationals had already lost their UK citizenship after travelling in support of terrorist groups.
Last year, two British men, accused of being members of an IS cell dubbed "The Beatles" were stripped of their citizenship after being captured in Syria.
In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Ms Begum said she never sought to be an IS "poster girl" and now simply wished to raise her child quietly in the UK.
She told the BBC she was "shocked" by the 2017 Manchester Arena attack - which killed 22 people and was claimed by IS - but she also compared it to military assaults on IS strongholds, saying it was "retaliation".
Robbie Potter, who was seriously injured in the attack while he waited for his children in the foyer of Manchester Arena, said he felt "angry" and sickened by Ms Begum's comments.
Ms Begum left the UK with two school friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase in February 2015. Ms Sultana is thought to have died when a house was blown up, and the fate of Ms Abase is unknown.
Ms Begum gave birth to a baby boy last weekend, having previously lost two children.
Her husband, a Dutch convert to Islam, is thought to have surrendered to a group of Syrian fighters about two weeks ago.
Source:
BBC News, February 20, 2019
Alabama woman who joined ISIS is begging to come home
(CNN) -- At the age of 19, a young woman from Hoover, Alabama traveled to Syria to join ISIS -- the so-called "Islamic State."
Five years and three husbands later, she says she regrets what she did and is begging to return to the US.
In a recent handwritten note obtained by CNN from a family representative, Hoda Muthana writes, "When I left to Syria I was a naive, angry, and arrogant young woman. I thought that I understood my religious beliefs."
But after witnessing the devastation of war, including the death of two husbands, Muthana said she became disillusioned.
"During my years in Syria I would see and experience a way of life and the terrible effects of war which changed me. Seeing bloodshed up close changed me. Motherhood changed me. Seeing friends, children, and the men I married dying changed me," the now 24-year-old wrote.
"Seeing how different a society could be compared to the beloved America I was born and raised into changed me. Being where I was and seeing the (people) around me scared me because I realized I didn't want to be a part of this. My beliefs weren't the same as theirs."
Outspoken support
Once described as shy and reserved by a high school classmate, Muthana was fiercely outspoken in her support for jihad after joining ISIS. During the height of the self-declared caliphate, Muthana posted tweets calling for violence, according to the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University.
"Hoda was right in the mix for English language propagandists," said terror researcher Seamus Hughes. "We followed her for a number of years. She was a key node."
She demanded more Americans come to the self-proclaimed Caliphate and join the fight with ISIS.
"Soooo many Aussies and Brits here, but where are the Americans, wake up u cowards," she posted in January 2015.
And under the name Umm Jihad, she encouraged attacks in the US, tweeting this exhortation in March 2015: "Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them."
According to Mia Bloom, who tracks female jihadis at Georgia State University, "She was one advocating for extreme violence, especially against American military and servicemen."
Regret
In a February 19 interview with ABC News, Muthana said she is now ashamed of those posts, and wishes she could take them back. She said she feels remorse and sorrow and regret, and begged to return home.
"I hope America doesn't think I'm a threat to them and I hope they can accept me," she told ABC.
But if she does end up returning to the US, it may not be on her own terms.
Hassan Shibly, head of Florida's Council on American-Islamic Relations and a representative for her family, said the family understands Muthana may be prosecuted, believes in the legal system, and asks only for due process.
The Justice Department did not comment on whether she would be extradited or prosecuted.
State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Tuesday that he could not discuss her particular case, but said that for any ISIS members in Syria, the department's policy, "in this regard, would be to repatriate them -- and that's what we call on all countries to do."
Asked if ISIS members could be sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Palladino would only say: "The US government is considering various alternative disposition options, for foreign terrorist fighters who cannot be repatriated."
Kurdish refuge
According to Muthana, she ran away from ISIS a few weeks ago and headed for the Kurdish area in northern Syria, where she is now in a camp for the displaced with her 18-month-old son. In her note, she speaks of her son's future.
"In my quiet moments -- in between bombings, starvation, cold, and fear -- I would look at my beautiful little boy, and know that I didn't belong here, and neither did he," she wrote.
Only now does she "really understand how important the freedoms that we have in America are."
But Hughes, the researcher, has words of caution.
"Let's not put a rosy color on what she did," he said. "She joined a foreign terrorist organization."
Source: cnn.com, Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, February 20, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Photo: Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Islamic State (IS) group has reportedly beheaded a 15-year-old boy for listening to Western pop music and shot dead two others for missing Friday prayers, as part of a wider crackdown in the group's stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq. According to local sources, reported by Kurdish media, the teenager named Ayham Hussein was caught during a patrol by Isis fighters, listening to Western music from his CD player in his father's grocery store, in the west of the city. Brought before a Sharia court, the boy was sentenced to death by beheading, which took place in a public square. His body was handed to his parents last Tuesday for burial. Separately, two young men were arrested last week for failing to attend Friday prayers at the main mosque in Mosul. Both were shot dead outside the same mosque on Sunday. The execution took place after a member of the Sharia Court read a statement vowing anyone who misses the prayers at the mosque to face the “same punishment." In late January, a 14-year-old was reportedly beheaded on similar charges. A witness said the boy’s parents were "forced to witness the beheading of their own son”. Reports from Mosul also indicate that four women victims of rape were stoned to death for adultery. (Read more).
Asked if ISIS members could be sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Palladino would only say: "The US government is considering various alternative disposition options, for foreign terrorist fighters who cannot be repatriated."
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