This World s12e04 Episode Script

The richest and most powerful terror organisation in history, Islamic State, is targeting British women to join its holy war.
They made me quite angry because not only was she trying to lure young people over to Syria, she was giving them step-by-step instructions as to how to do it.
Leaving the classroom for the battlefield, three teenage schoolgirls from London on their way to Syria This is my little sister's pyjamas.
We are just clinging on to the bits that we have, and we just want her to come home.
Recruited to become jihadi brides, in the so-called Islamic State.
Lured by sophisticated propaganda Bigger houses, and big, strong husbands.
A lot of excitement.
and a fantasy online teenage world of furry animals and Kalashnikovs.
It's kittens, it's about dress.
It's about the politics, it's about supporting Islamic State.
We go inside the secret world of the online jihadi recruiters.
They are like paedophiles.
They're groomers.
They're getting their claws into young people and they're pulling them away.
April 8th, 2015 Flames Of War-- a slick Hollywood-style recruitment video for IS, the so-called Islamic State.
Allahu Akbar! Glorifying and glamorising terror, these internet videos are being watched in teenage bedrooms around the country.
Syria is appealing in the sense that it's the start of a revolution.
So they all think we're going to be the generation that's made all of this happen.
We're going to be remembered for ages.
To their friends, the 16-year-old Halane twins Zahra and Salma from Chorlton in Manchester seemed like normal schoolgirls.
I've got some pictures from the Year 11 Leavers' Assembly.
She looks really happy and like really sad at the same time cos they were so dedicated to school that they didn't want to leave.
They were really upset about leaving and stuff.
They were friends with every single person.
You'd walk around the corridor and they'd smile at you or they'd wave, they'd never ignore you.
This is the first time Noshabah has been interviewed about the twins.
They were so confident and they were so loud and just like so bright and enthusiastic about every single thing.
They were really smart, they were always in the library, they were part of everything like ICT Club, Maths Club.
They were really good public speakers, they never sort of shied away from anything.
Islamic fundamentalism has come a long way since the bearded old men of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Somehow IS now appeals to bright, young British teenagers like the Halane twins.
They are very media savvy, they're very switched on in terms of their online presence and arguments in religion.
And it's almost as though the terrain has been left wide open to this organisation, and others, to recruit and to use the propaganda to good purpose and to brainwash.
Al-Qaeda were explicit in who the enemy was, and it wasn't about creating something, it was about destroying something.
What we're seeing online is much slicker material, material that's harder to discount and discredit, and that is really powerful.
You're fighting people who love death more than you love life.
To all the brothers in the UK, know that the caliphate has been established What Islamic State are doing is they're producing stuff in English, in Arabic, in other European languages to ensure that the message is heard.
The twins were star students with 28 GCSEs between them.
They wanted to be doctors.
They came from a devout Somali family, but they didn't bring their religion to school.
We never had a conversation about Islam.
They weren't like extreme jihadis, they weren't preaching in school, they were just normal teenage girls.
At the end of the summer term last year, the two girls flew to Istanbul in Turkey.
Then they travelled to the border town of Akcakale and crossed into Syria.
The main thing was how have they found the money to go out there? How have they afforded a ticket? How have they planned everything? Like their visa and all those sort of things? When you're going on holiday, your parents sort that out.
So, they must have been really responsible about it.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating the disappearance of twin 16-year-old girls who they believe have travelled to Syria.
Running away is just bad in general to be fair.
My mum always says, "Oh, if you ran away, I don't know what I'd do.
Oh, it would be so shameful for the community, for me to just stand there in the community," and you know, this and that and for their mum to know that they've run away and gone to join Isis, I think that must be horrible.
The aunt of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who has travelled to Syria after being radicalised West Midlands Police are investigating reports that a 25-year-old Birmingham woman and her one-year-old child have travelled to Syria The police know that 22 British women and girls have travelled to Syria.
But they think another 40 could have gone without being reported missing.
They're fighting a losing battle against the tide of jihadi propaganda.
We take down over 1,000 items of terrorist content a week at the moment.
Not websites, whole websites, but different items.
That's a lot of material out there that actually breaches the Terrorism Act.
IS is one of the few terror groups to actively target women.
They've proclaimed a caliphate-- a so-called Islamic State across Syria and Iraq.
They want it to spread across the Middle East.
Because of this, they need women to come and start families.
Islamic State is saying, "You can be a hero, you can be a warrior, but not in picking up a Kalashnikov and a sword, but actually by being part of the new state.
" One social media account even offers a matchmaking service.
Soon after they arrived in Syria, the Halane twins married Islamic State fighters.
From the middle of a war zone they began posting their own extremist messages on social media.
In September, they celebrated the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that killed thousands.
The same month their identities were revealed in the press.
They were dubbed the "Terror Twins" and they loved it.
I love the name Terror Twin because it makes me sound scary.
The twins are now part of the IS online army.
There are now believed to be more than 45,000 separate accounts linked to the terror group.
British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum from East London are also thought to have been radicalised online.
There was no indication whatsoever, she was just herself.
There was nothing different about her.
She was just our baby.
This is my little sister's pyjamas, she didn't take anything with her.
She didn't take anything with her.
We're just clinging on to the bits that we have and we just want her to come home.
If you watch this, baby, please, come home.
Mum needs you, more than anything in the world.
You're our baby and we just want you home, we want you safe.
Just contact anybody.
Let them know that you need help and you have got all the help in the world.
You are not in any trouble here.
We all love you.
If anybody has convinced you of anything, then they're wrong.
We love you more than anybody that can ever love you.
We now know that just before the girls disappeared, Shamima Begum sent a message on social media.
She tried to make contact with another British woman who was already in Syria.
That woman is a key online propagandist for IS.
She calls herself Umm Layth-- "Mother of the Lion".
Digging into Umm Layth's online world reveals hundreds of postings aimed at British girls.
They contain practical advice on how to get to Syria and what life is like once you get there.
Many sisters ask me to give them a list of what they should bring with them from the West and what they will need here.
There are many materialistic things that can be found here, but it's better for you to bring clothes, shoes, et cetera from the West.
It's a miracle if you find a top or trousers which last longer than a month.
For the winter, you will most likely need The winters here are freezing.
Trust me, I'm from the North of Britain, and even still I find it cold.
Like most online jihadis, Umm Layth's real identity is a secret, but she is obviously British and her blogs caught the attention of a young journalist in Glasgow.
They made me quite angry because not only was she, trying to lure young people over to Syria, she was giving them step-by-step instructions as to how to do it.
Khaleda Rahman was a trainee with Mailonline in Glasgow.
She decided to try and track down the mysterious Umm Layth.
She tweeted about missing Scotland and missing Irn Bru and so, that was relevant to us because it became clear that this is a Scottish girl.
One of the things that led us to the fact that she was from Glasgow was her talking about a couple of cricket teams from the south side of the city.
There were several references to Pakistan and tweets where she suggested that maybe she was Pakistani.
Umm Layth came across as well educated and articulate.
The media used to claim that the ones running away to join the jihad were unsuccessful, didn't have a future were from broke-down families.
But that is far from the truth.
and many promising paths, with big, happy families and friends.
Khaleda still didn't know her real name but she soon found out enough details to publish an article.
Via the internet, from the heart of the Islamic State, Umm Layth quickly hit back.
By the Lord of the Kaaba, know that whoever it is that gave away my details and initially have affected my family's security, I have an appointment with you on the Siraat.
The Siraat is the bridge over Hell.
It felt like a threat.
I was shocked and a little bit excited if I'm honest because I came in to work one morning and my editor said, "Have you seen what's she's tweeted?" And I had a look and I was a little bit speechless.
But Khaleda wasn't about to give up the chase.
I felt like it was a personal thing because she'd threatened me.
And it felt like she felt she was invincible and I wanted to prove that she wasn't.
A bit more detective work uncovered a teenage posting including the name "Aqsa", as well as the possible year she was born in.
The register of births at Glasgow Town Hall narrowed down the search further.
When Aqsa and 1994 and Glasgow was put into the system, there was only one hit-- it was Aqsa Mahmood.
Once I had that, we went to her family home.
The reaction from her father, it was obvious that he had been waiting for the day that a reporter came knocking on the door but he refused to talk about it so it wasn't enough to say, "Oh, he said it," because he just looked liked he was expecting it.
But he said, "I can't talk about this.
" That's quite a strange reaction if your daughter is round the back.
With the secret out and reporters on their doorstep, Aqsa Mahmood's parents held a press conference.
Their lawyer spoke for them.
"Aqsa was always a very sweet, peaceful, intelligent child and inquisitive about everything.
All parents want to be proud of their children, but sadly, we now feel nothing but sorrow and shame for Aqsa.
Aqsa, you have torn the heart out of our family and changed our lives for ever.
Please come home.
" It was so emotional.
I sat in the third row and I felt like I couldn't have sat any closer because even from back there, it was making me want to cry and all I could think was, "This is how my family would feel if I did something like that.
" I could relate so much to it because her father could have been my father, her mother could have been mine.
By some random coincidence, her mother had the same name as I do.
Aqsa Mahmood was unmasked in September last year.
By then, IS had taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
American war planes began bombing IS strongholds.
The tactics of the IS fighters became more and more horrific.
They began beheading Western hostages and posting the videos online.
The first to die was American journalist James Foley.
Another British jihadi bride celebrated his death by posting this online.
I want to be the first UK woman to kill a UK or US terrorist.
Jesus can give people life.
He walks in among us.
It's 6:30 on a Tuesday morning in East London.
Mrs.
Victoria Dare has come to pray for her daughter, Grace, who has gone to Syria.
Jesus! Jesus! Her pastor knows the toll it has taken on her.
This is the first time Mrs.
Dare has told her story.
She's desperate for her daughter to come home.
In 1987, the family moved to Britain from Nigeria.
Four years later, her daughter Grace was born.
The family have always been devout Christians.
She loves church.
In some of the churches I've been, she was the one who was dragging me.
"Mum, I've found good church again!" She has a Bible.
She reads her Bible.
And she would say, "I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm praying.
" Grace went to college to study psychology.
She made new friends and began staying out late.
She grew apart from her mum who thought she was hiding things from her.
All right, I'll see Just wait, hold on a second.
When she's talking to friends, sometimes she would shut the door so that I won't listen.
I started noticing that something was not right, she wouldn't like me to listen to what she was saying.
Grace stopped going to church.
She stopped reading her Bible and talking to her mum about her faith.
Then, just before she turned 18, she came home and made an announcement.
She just said, "I'm now a Muslim.
" I said, "Muslim? What? What happened?" I can't tell her "Don't go" or something like that.
Because I knew even if you tell them, she follows the friends.
Grace had been going to the local mosque-- Lewisham Islamic Centre-- the same mosque linked in the press to the men who killed Lee Rigby in Woolwich.
The mosque denies those links and any connection to Grace Dare's radicalisation.
When she became a Muslim, I just saw that they'd be phoning, "Oh, can I speak to Khadijah?" Then, I asked her.
She said, "That's my name.
" It's only the mosque people who calls her Khadijah.
I don't know anything about Khadijah.
So, I still call her Grace.
Up till today.
Grace had changed her name to Khadijah.
She left home and had a baby.
She led her own life, apart from her mum, and centred around her new religion.
Were there any indications to you that she was thinking about leaving? I knew something was not right.
But she never listens to me, or confide in me.
Just her friends and "sisters", since she go to that mosque.
"Sister, sister, sister," that's all.
Many kids grow apart from their parents.
But radicalisers often use this separation as a way of pushing people to more and more extremist versions of Islam.
They feel that they don't want to compromise their religion by following their parents because somehow it's been inserted in the process that the parents are perceived as objects, they're materialistic.
They were something that were just bestowed on a temporary loan by the one above.
The love, the mercy, the bond, this was something that was irrelevant to us, we were just functional, we had a purpose, we had to be functional, we don't let anything get in our way and just get there.
In 2013, Mrs.
Dare went with her daughter and grandson to the airport.
She thought Grace was going to study abroad.
She was very nervous.
She was not happy at all.
She doesn't talk to me.
When she was checking in, we did everything and when she was going, she just said, "You won't see me any more.
" And I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "You won't see me any more, Mum.
" That's it.
Khadijah Dare was one of the first British jihadi brides.
She married a Swedish jihadi called Abu Bakr.
They allowed a film crew to show their lives in Syria.
Marriage to a rebel warrior, a life of Islamic purity, a part in a historic war.
The footage paints an extraordinary picture.
A mixture of extremist Islam and domestic jihadi bliss.
Khadijah Dare now posts fanatical messages online to radicalise other British girls.
There are around 550 Western women inside the Islamic State.
They've become the centre of a huge online community.
A powerful weapon for Islamic State recruitment.
What we're looking at is a Twitter account of a young woman and just to give you a sense of the kind of things they are tweeting about Katherine Brown from Kings College monitors the social media postings of British jihadists abroad.
What we see here is we're talking about everyday life, we're talking about different things that's going on, "So many gunshots in Raqqah", And then, we have a picture here of food in Raqqah.
Analysing the material reveals a remarkable hidden world.
The trivial chat of teenagers is mixed with religious extremism.
The girls often post about things they need and can't get in Syria.
What we also see is this mixture of English and Arabic and text-speaking English.
So there's one here, an extended LOL-- so laughing out loud, lot and lots.
"Are people really crying over me drinking Starbucks, fam? It's from Garmina.
Shut up.
" Or, "Deleted my Tumblr cos these kuffs, they're annoying.
" "Kuffs" being short for "kaffir" and they're very annoying.
And again, so we're seeing this mixture of informal language that really relates to young people.
This mixture of English and Arabic coming together to create this Its own This unique form of communicating.
The posts are full of typical teenage life-- smileys, fashion tips, food and pictures of kittens.
This is great insight into the life of a teenager.
It's kittens, it's about dress, it's about clothing, it's about family.
It's about the politics, it's about supporting Islamic State.
It's also saying, look, the line between me in Iraq and Syria and you in Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, London, wherever is not so great.
So, it has that appeal.
Because, if an account, or if an online page is so negative or is just pronouncement after pronouncement after pronouncement, it becomes like listening to your parents or your schoolteacher.
Where's the fun in that? Why would you listen to them any more, right? You say, "Look, I can still be an individual, but I'm in Iraq and Syria.
Come and join.
" The online propagandists are keen to show how easy life can be in the Islamic State.
One woman posted these claims online.
The online community also denies some of the most brutal crimes committed in the name of Islam.
When there were reports and video footage of Islamic State committing atrocities, the women say, "No, that's made up, that's not real, The Islamic State haven't committed a single crime.
Everything they've done has been in accordance with sharia.
Everything they've done has been in defence.
" This mixture of politics, religion and teenage chat seems trivial, but it can help turn a normal girl into a religious extremist in the space of just a few months.
Umm Layth, Glasgow student Aqsa Mahmood, became a jihadist fanatic without even leaving her bedroom.
From all accounts, she was a loving, a kind, caring individual, very intelligent young woman who was family-oriented and never caused any problems to her family.
It was a great set-up.
The family were liberal in their views, religion wasn't enforced on their children.
The Mahmoods came to Britain from Pakistan in the 1970s and settled in Glasgow.
Aqsa's father ran a hotel.
The family were cricket fanatics and Mr.
Mahmood became the first Pakistani to play cricket for Scotland.
She was given the best education that money could buy.
She was sent to a top private school in Glasgow, Craigholme.
She wanted to be a doctor.
Digging deeper into Aqsa's online life reveals the journey she took towards the Islamic State.
Back in 2013, her blog contained typical teenage posts.
Who remembers that ghoul episode of Scooby-Doo? That was my childhood, basically.
I'm feeling so lazy today.
Might watch a film, it feels like it's been ages since I've done that.
My sister has locked herself in the car and is refusing to come out because she knows when she comes inside, she'll need to go back to revising.
I love the genius! But we now know that Aqsa began watching online videos of radical Islamist preachers.
A favourite was Australian Feiz Mohammad-- a man accused of inciting jihadist violence.
This is our intention, brothers and sisters, that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, Teach them this, that there is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid and then being resurrected once again, and die again and be resurrected and die again, be resurrected and die again.
Sheikh Feiz Mohammad is my kind of sheikh.
He doesn't beat around the bush, he says it like it is.
His online sermons made Aqsa give up her childhood world.
They're sitting down, these children, about six of them, watching Harry Potter! I said, "What are you doing?" "What do you mean, Sheikh?" "How can you allow your children to watch this?" He goes, "Harmless fiction, harmless entertainment!" I go, "Harmless! "Harmless? This film, whatever you think about it, glorifies, magnifies, promotes paganism.
I cried a little after listening to Sheikh Fez's opinion on Harry Potter.
OK, not a little, a lot.
I was quite Bollywood-style dramatic.
Gave my books to my little sister.
The posts show her teenage confusion.
I'm so bipolar.
One day my blog will be all jihadi brrap-brrap and the next day, I'm singing.
May Allah guide me.
Feelings of guilt, confusion and religious fervour make teenagers vulnerable.
Radical Islamic recruiters are used to targeting these emotions.
So, we will draw any kind of youth or teenager, those that thought they were sincere, those that want to be spiritual, those that thought that they've committed so much sin, or they've probably done so much stuff, bad life, this is a a mechanism for them to atone for their sins.
And the blog posts show that Aqsa was prepared to make sacrifices for her new beliefs.
She was told that some everyday activities are "haram" or forbidden.
Why is it haram to pluck the eyebrows? Because the prophet said it was haram.
Doesn't it say in the Koran that if you just tidy them, it is OK? No, no, sister, look, you can prepare yourself for your husband, but the plucking of the eyebrows is not for your husband.
She describes not plucking her eyebrows as her biggest struggle.
What a brother feels after seeing his pre-beard pictures must be the equivalent of how I feel when I see pictures of me with my haram eyebrows.
LOL.
#TeamBushyEyebrows.
As time goes by, she starts doubting everything about herself.
I feel like I have no direction any more.
It's funny how things work out.
Once upon a time, I used to be such a career-obsessed girl.
Now, I have no clue.
I just want another fresh start.
To do it right this time.
We'd say, "Do you ever question about your purpose in life? Do you ever question how long you're going to be here? Is this life eternal or not? What are we doing?" But the most powerful tool for the extremist recruiters is the politics of the Middle East.
Many Muslims around the world are opposed to Western foreign policy in the region.
American and British support for Israel, and especially attitudes to the war in Gaza have upset many.
And over the last 15 years, wars across the Muslim world have been hugely controversial.
You're looking at issues regarding Syria, you're looking at issues regarding Iraq, the amount of people that have been abused, you know, have had their human rights stripped.
In every Muslim household in this country, there is repeated anger when you switch on the news, whether it be from young people, old people, about what's happening in the Middle East, in Palestine, in Syria, in Iraq, Guantanamo.
The war in Syria began as a struggle for democracy against the ruthless and brutal dictatorship of Bashar al Assad.
But unlike other conflicts, Western governments didn't intervene as thousands of innocent Muslims were slaughtered.
Why did Nato unitedly overthrow the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and We will never forget you, brothers and sisters in Syria, whether you are outside the prison, or still inside the prisons enduring the severity of the tortures.
In isolation, an individual will want to become more inquisitive, "Let me just find out about what's happening in Syria.
" You just have to type it in now.
Right, just type it in, what's happening and you'll find a whole flow of what's happening in Syria, that's where the link comes in, that's where a person's mind is open to be exploited, to become vulnerable and to be radicalised into an extreme ideology.
In their videos, IS claim to be the only credible force combating the Syrian dictator.
In the 17th Division military base just outside the city of Ar-Raqqah, and we're here with the soldiers of Bashar.
You can see them now digging their own graves in the very place where they were stationed.
This is the end that they face.
This is the end of every kaffir that we get a hold of.
With its high production values, IS propaganda creates a credible alternative to what they claim is hypocritical and anti-Islamic Western policy.
These are really intelligent women, so it is a mistake to think that they're fools, that they've been brainwashed into this, that they're blindly following people, that they don't understand what they're doing.
They know, they've made choices, rational choices.
But, I would argue, they're doing it with a lack of information and without, possibly, the critical thinking skills that people develop over time.
And that's what's at stake here.
But they're not stupid, they're not fools.
For Aqsa Mahmood, the politics soon turned into religious bigotry.
She insults Shia Muslims who follow a different version of the Muslim faith.
The hardline Sunnis of IS have massacred thousands of Shias and destroyed their mosques.
Most Shia and Sunni Muslims live together in peace.
But in her blog, Aqsa claims that Shias are worse than kuffirs-- non-believers-- because of their different religious beliefs.
They, the Shias, are even worse than the kuffir because the kuffir completely reject Tawhid, but they are trying to change Tawhid as to their whims and desires.
If you want to be all chummy-chummy with those who insult my mother, and curse their companions then go ahead.
But I would rather befriend a pig before I go near that lot for unity.
Aqsa's parents deny they could have done anything to stop her joining IS.
But analysing her posts reveals that they were worried about what was happening to her.
I asked my dad to get me some books while he goes to Pakistan next week.
He got angry and said, "What, Al-Qaeda-type books?" My parents genuinely think I am extremist.
#JustBecauseIHaveBinLadensBiography.
Just before she left, Aqsa posted a news story about two Norwegian girls who'd made the hijrah-- journey-- to Syria.
I am getting so halal jealous of all those who've recently made hijrah to Bilad al-Sham, fi sabilillah.
Finally, there was this picture.
And an image of a plane taking off.
The mother and father said that what was unusual was that when she left the house she gave everybody a hug, she gave the grandparents a hug, told them she loved them.
So, they took her to the train station and that was the last they saw of her.
And then, when she didn't come home in the evening, they tried to contact her, there was no answer.
The police came round, and they said that the police didn't take it seriously, they weren't concerned.
They invited the police into their house to take the computer and check her bedroom.
And then, two days later, it wasn't the police that told the family where Aqsa was, it was Aqsa that told the family that she was at the border with Turkey.
Mrs.
Mahmood begged them to contact the Turkish authorities to let them go out to Turkey to speak to their daughter.
They were told keep it under the radar, don't go public about this, keep quiet and we'll see.
And that's what they did.
Three months later, the family got a phone call from Aqsa who was in Syria and a fully paid-up member of IS.
November, she left, and by February, she's contacting the family to say that she's marrying an Isis fighter, seeking their permission or blessing.
What could they do? There was nothing they could do.
She was in Isis by then.
And now, 15 months later, we know she is a poster girl recruit, a high-value recruit for Isis who's been regularly plugged on blogs and in the media.
As an active blogger and recruiter for IS, Aqsa Mahmood posts tips and advice for women thinking of joining.
Your day will revolve around cooking, cleaning, looking after, and sometimes even educating children.
As much as the Western society has warped your views on this with a hidden feminist mentality.
She even gives advice on how to deal with your parents once you've left.
The first phone call you make once you cross the borders is one of the most difficult things you will ever have to do.
Your parents are already worried enough over where you are, whether you're OK and what's happened.
Most likely they will blame themselves.
They will think they have done something.
But until they truly understand from the bottom of their heart that you have done this action sincerely for Allah's sake, they will live in hope that you will return.
They might assume this is a "phase you're going through" or a huge mistake you've made.
Sometimes, it would be easier for you to accept your parents disowning you and wanting nothing to do with you.
When you hear them sob and beg like crazy on the phone for you to come back, it's so hard.
This kind of recruiting-- splitting people from their families-- is just like the methods used by religious cults.
You're trying to radicalise young people into criminal behaviour, that's what it is.
At the end of the day, it's got nothing to do with Islam, it's a cultic behaviour but it's more violent, it's more advanced like that.
At the age of 20, Aqsa Mahmood's journey from Glasgow student to full-blown jihadi was complete.
She wrote this directly to her mother.
"They will question and bring doubt upon your upbringing and your values.
But, my mother, you have raised a lioness among a land of cowards.
So, forgive me, my love.
I left without a warning.
Forgive me, ya umee, I've left and I know you've accepted that I'm never coming back.
" To uncover just how far the tentacles of IS can spread, you need to go to France.
France has produced even more jihadi brides than Britain.
And IS recruiters there are actively approaching and grooming girls online.
Lea is 15.
She told a French interviewer the disturbing story of how she was contacted out of the blue by jihadi radicalisers, just because she had a Muslim name.
I'd set up a Facebook page, my page wasn't extremist at all.
It was a normal page, like all young people have.
A month later, the first person started talking to me asking me whether I was a Muslim or not.
I said, yes, I was Muslim but that I wanted to learn more about the religion.
They asked me why I had not done that already.
I said I had been preoccupied with doing silly things and I wanted to seek forgiveness for that.
Then they asked me what I did at school.
I said I studied subjects that would enable me to become a nurse as I was interested in humanitarian work.
Within weeks, Lea's online groomers were working on her emotions.
They started showing me videos.
They said I could come and do humanitarian work in Syria.
They showed me videos of Syrian people who were being gassed by Bashar, people being bombed, being brought to the hospital and then all the jihadists working for the people, doing only good things for people who were unhappy.
They said Islamic law had been implemented, that this was a true Islamic country and that I had to emigrate there.
Following the familiar pattern, Lea's online contacts told her to cut ties with her friends and family.
I stayed locked away from most of my friends and family.
I stayed locked up in my bedroom.
They said, "You shouldn't obey your parents because they don't observe, so you shouldn't bother obeying them.
" They said, "Stop listening to the media.
" I stopped watching television, because they said the media only gave a bad image of Islam and that it was only them who would tell the truth.
Soon, the recruiters were making plans for Lea to travel from France to Syria.
They asked me for a photo, with and without my veil.
Someone asked me for my name, where I lived, my age, my date of birth, and how much money I would have to bring with me.
And then they asked for my number and said they would come directly to the airport to get me.
They told me we would go to Turkey first and I'd get married there so I could get pregnant, then I'd go with my child.
There, you see their networks forming, and there are minders and people helping them at every stage, telling them where to transfer the money, how to get the tickets, who will meet them at particular airports.
And there's actually quite a sleek operation going on about facilitating people's movements.
They said everything would be all right, that thinking I would get arrested or stopped at the airport was silly because they'd done it before and everything would be fine.
Finally the recruiters arranged to meet Lea outside her school.
But the French Security Services had been monitoring the communications and she was intercepted and rescued at the school gates.
There's nothing religious about them, there's nothing loving about them.
They are ripping the heart out of our community.
They are like paedophiles.
They're groomers.
They're getting their claws into young people and they're pulling them away from the families that care and love them.
It was difficult for me to fully accept that I had been indoctrinated.
It was painful for me to admit it.
It's still hard for me to admit it.
I'd been so stupid.
I understand if lots of people think it's my fault.
Lea was lucky.
Because life in Syria isn't quite what the recruiters claim.
Earlier in the year, IS released a manifesto spelling out the role of women.
It revealed that girls could be married from the age of nine and IS fighters were allowed more than one wife.
When they conquer new territory, the jihadis take young women as sex slaves.
These extraordinary pictures show a sex slave market where girls are bartered.
British girls have high value, but their marriages don't last long.
Last autumn, Khadijah Dare's husband, Abu Bakr, was killed fighting Syrian forces.
She reported his death by posting this photograph.
The husbands of the so-called "Terror Twins" have also achieved what they called "final reckoning".
Last December, Zahra Halane announced that her husband, a man originally from Coventry, was dead.
Suppose your husband dies, you'll be forced to marry someone else.
Where are the boundaries? Where is your protection? Where is the law? These people have created laws.
You know, we're in a situation of the Animal Farm, you know, where you give people power, they will abuse it and these people are human They're not something out of They're not divine, they're human beings, so, of course, there'll be power trip here.
There'll be power abuse of power here.
From messages sent back home to other families, we know that British girls have their passports confiscated.
One woman was threatened with execution if she tried to leave.
What they fail to understand is that they've been brainwashed by someone's sick ideology which has got absolutely nothing to do with Islam whatsoever.
These women need to wake up to the true sisterhood of Islam and say, "Is this what Islam is about?" They need to question.
This is the problem, they're brainwashed so bad that they've lost their own soul.
If British women decide they want to leave, and they manage to escape from Syria, they could still face prosecution back home in Britain.
I think in the early days, some people travelled with a very romantic notion of what life was like there and there wasn't much information around, but I'm thinking about a year ago.
People who have gone more recently have gone open-eyed as to what is happening over there.
And they have made a decision to go and join it and support the awful atrocities that people over there are committing.
So, they've made a decision in full knowledge of the facts.
But counter-terror police are encouraging families to stay in touch.
I think everyone should be willing to keep those contacts in place and consistently say, "Please come home, please come home.
" If women are in that position and want to come back, then I would welcome them back, we would be able to talk to them, work with them and their families, investigate what's happened, I would want them to be as open as they possibly could be with us, but at the end of all of that, if all they've done is made a mistake and they want to put that right, then they will be able to carry on with their lives here.
OK, but returning girls will still be seen as a threat to this country in terms of security? Well, for public safety, everybody will be investigated by police, yes.
And that's the way we keep everybody safe.
We need to find out whether they are people who are deeply radicalised, trained, dangerous terrorists or whether they are people who have made a mistake and are coming back and want to leave that completely behind them.
The lawyer for the family of Aqsa Mahmood believes the girls who return could be crucial to the fight against the extremists.
The best way to defeat radicalisation is to find the ex-radicals and say, "Why did you join and what was wrong with it?" Use them as the role models and the figureheads to say that you are going to fight for this glorified illusion of a war that you're being told all about and when you get there, it's hell.
You're told you're going to the Gates of Paradise, but once you get there, in Syria, you will see what hell is about, because it's there.
It's happening now.
I would say to these young women out there, you have a faculty that helps you to distinguish from what is right and what is wrong.
And I hope you do return to your family because, remember, they were there for you since you were a child through the mercy, your mum bore you, you know, your father's hard work, and there could have been alternative ways if only you had spoken to someone about your grievances or your anxiety about this, it's not worth it at the end, it's dirty politics.
The three school girls from Bethnal Green are now thought to be in the capital city of the so-called Islamic State, Raaqah, and it's likely they'll be married soon.
I think the reason I wouldn't go there to fight is my parents, mainly.
You know, it's not My parents tell me that it's not, you know, as perfect as it might seem to you and I'm not fed the same sort of propaganda that they might be fed, you know.
Noshabah's former friends, the Halane sisters, are now 17.
They carry on posting pictures and messages glorifying Islamic State.
It's almost as if they've romanticised it completely, like they think they're going to go over and it's just going to perfect and it's going to be like an amazing revolution, but it's In fact, they're just going to be living in caves you know, taking care of the wounded, covered in head-to-toe.
Aqsa Mahmood's blog shows her dedication to the jihadi cause.
Know this, Cameron, Obama, you and your countries will be beneath our feet and your kuffir will be destroyed.
If not you, then your grandchildren or their grandchildren.
This Islamic empire shall be known and feared worldwide and we will follow none other than the law of the one and the only Allah.
This is a war against Islam, and it is known that either you're with them or you're with us.
So, pick a side.
Khadijah Dare is still in Syria.
It doesn't look like she intends to come back anytime soon.
I will never go back to Dar al-Kufr.
Why would I go back now? But her mum holds onto the hope that the girl she still thinks of as Grace will come home to Lewisham.
"I want you back," that's what I said.
"I want you back to my life.
You are to come back to me.
" That's what I always say.
She's the only child I have.
She's supposed to be my companion and the Devil took her away from my life.