A minicab driver today pleaded for his wife to come home after she allegedly fled to Syria with their two young children on Valentine’s Day to join Islamic State.
Former RBS bank clerk Rehana Begum Islam left her husband of 14 years Azizul Islam, vanishing overnight from their home in Enfield.
She took their eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter and travelled from Heathrow to Istanbul on February 14.
The 33-year-old then took an internal flight to Gaziantep, a city on Turkey’s border with Syria, known as a popular entry point into Islamic State territory.
It is suspected she was recruited by Mohamed Al-Rashed, 28, a Syrian accused of helping three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy travel to join Islamic State on February 17. Her passport details were found on his laptop.
Mr Islam, 36, told the Daily Mail: “It’s really hard for me, I haven’t seen my kids for more than one month. I can’t even sleep without my kids.
“My question is why did she go there? She has two kids, she has a family, and this house is in her name. Why has she left everything? This is really unbelievable.
“When the police told me she travelled to Gaziantep – I’ve seen it in the news, so many British people are trying to travel there – it came into my mind that maybe she’s gone to Syria but still I can’t believe it.”
He added: “I’m worried about my kids, I hope she comes back with my kids. Please. She’s going to destroy my two kids’ lives.
“IS is killing Muslim people as well. My religion doesn’t say anything about killing people.
“If you’re Muslim you should know that the Koran doesn’t say this. These people are dangerous.’
“When I married her she wasn’t religious, she was like a normal girl, she didn’t even cover herself. But a couple of years ago she started covering up and praying five times a day.”
Mr Islam, said he suspected his wife was missing when he came home in the early hours.
He said: “I tried calling her big sister but she said she wasn’t there. We called her friends, relatives and made phone calls, but no one knew so we called the police.
‘The police told me she took a flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam, and from Amsterdam to Istanbul. When they found out that she flew to Gaziantep maybe then they thought she went to Syria. I don’t have any clue.”
A statement posted on Begum’s Facebook page three weeks before she travelled said: “We were the most humiliated people on Earth and God gave us honour through Islam. If we ever seek honour through anything else, God will humiliate us again.”
Security services estimate that more than 600 Britons have gone to join militant groups in Syria and Iraq since the explosion of violence in the region began.
They include 22 women and girls who have travelled in the past 12 months, many of whom wanted to become jihadi brides.
