Black-hearted brides of ISIS can rot where they are

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

The women who left Australia for Islamic State are not innocents abroad. They are traitors who surrendered their right of return when they enlisted in genocidal jihad. They chose terrorism over peace, enslavement over freedom, sharia law over liberal democracy and the caliphate over Australia. They violated the inherent hum­an rights of innocents in the most gruesome manner imaginable. Families rising up to defend the brides of Islamic State genocide should hang their heads in shame.

Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar were the most odious exports Australia has produced. The infamous jihadis became household names through the horrific abuse of women and children. Sharrouf groomed his offspring as child soldiers. They were used in Islamic State propaganda, such as the shocking image of Sharrouf’s young son holding the head of a decapitated soldier.

Consistent with Islamic State doctrine, Sharrouf reared his sons as child soldiers and his daughter as a child bride. He married off 13-year-old Zaynab to his vile comrade Elomar. In 2017, Sharrouf became the first Australian to be stripped of citizenship under the government’s anti-terrorism laws.

Many women and children have been left stateless by the fall of Islamic State. Australian foreign fighters living in Syrian refugee camps include three men and 10 women. The Weekend Australian reported that there also are 19 children in the camps. Excluding four unidentified cases, the women and men would have been adults when they left the country to join Islamic State.

Many families of women who joined Islamic State are pleading for public sympathy. Some are taking legal action to compel Western governments to permit their Islamist offspring to return. Lest we forget what the willing brides of Islamic State genocide do to those in their care.

In the al-Hol camp in Syria, almost all of the jihadi brides are foreign nationals who chose to join Islamic State. A camp director told France24 some remain dangerous: “They’re ferocious, they burned some of the Syrians’ tents, they would call them cockroaches, infidels. They consider themselves as the only true Muslims. So we had to separate them.”

In 2015, security experts estimated 550 women from Western countries had voluntarily joined the caliphate. At the time, international news was saturated with stories about the extreme violence of Islamic State fighters. They were staging public decapitations, burning people alive, raping wom­en and beheading children. They buried grandmothers with their children in mass graves. They tortured Christian children to punish parents. They tortured women for the fun of it and used the Koran as justification. In the midst of the hell, female foreigners poured in to Syria and Iraq to assist Islamic State soldiers. They knew exactly where they were going and for what purpose. They played the essential role of sustaining the terrorist group to consolidate its territorial gains. Never underestimate female jihadis’ devotion to terror and talent for duplicity.

Among the women of Australian origin seeking to return is Kirsty Rosse-Emile. Like other jihadi brides, she has a history of radicalism. As reported by news.com.au, she wrote social media posts praising Islamist terrorism and demeaning women: “A woman who reveals her body or even wears tight-fitting clothes won’t come within 500 years of the smell of Jannah (paradise).” Her father believes the Prime Minister should return her to Australia and that such a decision would demonstrate “love, compassion and forgiveness”.

Zehra Duman left Australia to join Islamic State. She is pleading sympathy in the style of jihadi brides the world over by using her children as pity bait in a game of emotional blackmail. Duman threat­ened Australians and tried to recruit for Islamic State. Yet from a refugee camp, she dares to call Australia home: “I want to go back to my country … I am an Australian citizen … Both of my kids are sick. My kids have a right at least to be treated like normal kids.” If Duman wanted to return to Australia, she shouldn’t have pledged loyalty to jihad and left a trail of social media posts inciting terror against Australians and our allies such as: “Attack UK, AUS, US.” Here is another letter from ideal citizen Duman pledging allegiance to the Australian way of life: “Kill kuffar (non-Muslims) in alleyways. Stab them and poison them. Poison your teachers. Go to haram restaurants and poison the food in large quantities.”

Islamic State is not a finishing school for fine young ladies. But it has produced more Oscar-worthy performances than Meryl Streep. Consider Shamima Begum, who used her newborn son in a plea to return to Britain. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn defended her right of return. Family members cited Begum’s evident youth and alleged innocence in her defence.

After her son tragically died, Labour MPs blamed the Tory government for refusing her repat­ri­ation. But Sky correspondent John Sparks had interviewed Begum and the evidence was damning. She said: “People should have, like, sympathy towards me for everything I’ve been through … for the sake of me and my child, they could let me come back.” Yet Begum displayed the lack of basic humanity for which jihadis are renowned. She admitted knowing about Islamic State decapitating people before she left for the caliphate yet condoned it because “Islamically, that is allowed”.

Female foreign fighters want you to believe they took no part in terrorism and genocide. They portray themselves and each other as devoted wives and mothers innocent of brutality. They lie.

Many foreign fighters demanding a right of return from Syrian refugee camps were the last to leave Islamic State-held territories. Experts believe they number among the most radical devotees of international jihad.

Women who left the West for jihad went with clear intent and did not seek repatriation until conditions deteriorated. If Islamic State had been victorious in its war on liberty and humanity, the jihadi brides feigning regret would be dancing in the street and on our graves. We should seek to deradicalise the children of foreign fighters. They are innocents. Children who demonstrate the capacity to live peacefully among Australians should be repatriated. But the devoted brides of Islamic State genocide can rot where they stand.