Fighters from Islamic State seen marching in their stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, June 2014. (AP/Militant Website, File)
The parents of Aqsa Mahmood, 19, of Scotland, spoke out on Saturday about their daughter who has joined the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria, and who insists she wants to become “martyr.”
In an interview with CNN, the Mahmoods said their teenage daughter was a good girl who had grown increasingly religious and radical since the civil war in Syria broke out, posting messages of solidarity with Islamists on social media and urging terrorist attacks on Western sites.
The 19-year-old, whose parents said did not even know how to take the bus downtown by herself, ran away to team up with the Islamic State in November and called her parents days later from the Turkey-Syria border to inform them of her decision. In February, she called them again to tell them she would soon marry an IS fighter.
In the initial conversation with her parents, Aqsa said “I will see you on the day of judgement,” her father, Mazaffar said.
“She was the best daughter we could have,” Mahmood told the TV station. “And we don’t know what happened to her, no. We told her there was nothing wrong in praying and reading the Koran.”
“We are a moderate Muslim family, and it was a big shock for us,” he said.
The Mahmood family emigrated from Pakistan to Glasgow in the 1970s, and settled in an affluent neighborhood.
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Their children attended private schools, and Aqsa was said to love the Harry Potter books and Coldplay.
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