British student joins ISIL takfiris

An aspiring Cardiff medical student was last night identified as the Briton at the centre of a campaign by an Islamic terror group to recruit would-be jihadists to Iraq and Syria.

Nasser Muthana, 20, appeared in a propaganda video by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [Isis] urging others to join him.

His father, Ahmed Muthana, told The Daily Telegraph last night that Nasser’s 17-year-old brother, Aseel, was fighting alongside him. He claimed his sons were “brainwashed” in Britain.

Muthana said watching footage of his son had made him cry.

"I wish I could hold him, hold his hand, ask him to come back," he said.

"As a father I give a message, not only to Nasser, to all the people that go from Britain to Syria to fight please stop. Come back home."

Muthana said his son had been accepted at four universities to study medicine but did not go, and he had not heard from him since November.

In February, the younger brother also disappeared after it is thought he applied for a second passport.

"To be honest, I don't agree with him but I don't know what he has been taught in his mind," he said.

"Of course I fear he will be injured or die fighting but I can do nothing. They are conservative Muslim, they don't have girlfriends, they don't talk to girls."

In the video, a professional piece of propaganda for the extremist group which emerged yesterday, Muthana was identified by an alias, Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni. He said that although he was being filmed in Syria, he promised to take the fight to Iraq. He was one of three men thought to be Britons who appeared in the film.

Other evidence suggests that British fanatics are at the heart of a global Islamist jihad, playing key roles in trying to recruit young Muslims to Iraq and other extremist hotbeds.

One counter-terrorism expert yesterday said Britain had become a “hub” for international jihad and was “exporting” its expertise around the world in a legacy of the days of “Londonistan” when several extremists were given a home in the capital.

The Home Office last night said it would work with internet companies to stop terrorist messages being broadcast.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, warned that tackling the threat posed by the Islamist militants would require “patient, long-term work”, and that “there are no easy answers”.

ISIL has overrun large swathes of Iraq since taking the country’s second city, Mosul, last week. President Barack Obama has not ruled out the US taking military action against the group.

In yesterday’s 13-minute ISIL video, entitled “There is no life without Jihad”, the Britons called on their “brothers” to martyr themselves for Allah, adding: “You are going to die anyway.”

They said they were about to cross from Syria into Iraq to join the war, and Nasser Muthana said they were ready to take the fight to Jordan or Lebanon.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph last night, Nasser’s father said: “These are not his views, [they are] somebody else’s views. I think he has been brainwashed in the UK, but I don’t know.”

Ahmed Muthana said his son had been accepted at four universities to study to be a doctor but did not go, and he had not heard from him since November.
The younger brother disappeared in February after apparently applying for a second passport.

Muthana added: “To be honest, I don’t agree with him but I don’t know what he has been taught in his mind. Of course I fear he will be injured or die fighting but I can do nothing. They are conservative Muslim, they don’t have girlfriends, they don’t talk to girls.”
He said their mother had suffered a nervous breakdown after finding out about her sons. 
Dr Zuhair al-Naher, a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, described ISIL as a “foreign extremist group of murderers”. He warned that the latest video showed that Isis respected no border, saying: “These terrorists will come back highly radicalised and militarised and they will come back to create a huge security threat.”

In the video, one of the men said to have been from Britain, posing with an automatic weapon on his shoulder, appealed directly for recruits. A caption identified him as Brother Abu Bara’ al-Hindi. “Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you’ve got, the big car you’ve got, the family you have?” he asks. “Are you willing to sacrifice this for the sake of Allah?
Definitely, if you sacrifice something for Allah, Allah will give you 700 times more than this.”
Another man, identified in a caption as Brother Abu Dujana al-Hindi, says: “Look around you while you sit in comfort and ask yourself, is this how you want to die? Know that you will be resurrected the way you lived your life.”

The role of Britons in global jihad was reinforced following the arrest of two Texas men this week.

The Muslim Council of Britain last night said it was concerned by reports of young Britons going to the Middle East. “But travelling to Iraq or Syria will not help the people of those countries, and will cause anguish for worried parents at home,” it said in a statement.
The ISIL video was taken down by YouTube last night. A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not tolerate the existence of online terrorist and extremist propaganda, which directly influences people who are vulnerable to radicalisation.”