Missing Bradford sisters: Mother ‘didn’t want children to grow up in UK’
19 June 2015
From the section UK
One of three sisters believed to have taken their children to Syria “didn’t want her daughters to grow up in England”, a friend of hers has said.
The woman, who asked not to be named, told the BBC Zohra Dawood “didn’t like the UK” and thought England was becoming “more like America”.
Ms Dawood and her sisters Khadija and Sugra, all from Bradford, went missing along with their nine children.
Earlier an Islamic State (IS) smuggler said they had now reached Syria.
The friend of Zohra Dawood, who wanted to remain anonymous because she said she feared for her life, said the mother told her: “I don’t want my children living in this society.”
The friend added: “She says she wants to live in Saudi Arabia because she didn’t like the UK.”
Asked if she challenged Zohra over her views, the friend said: “No because by then Zohra completely ignored us. She didn’t talk to anyone. I don’t know what she was thinking.”
The friend also appealed for the return of the children.
“Why has she taken them into a war zone? They were perfectly happy children. We’re all worried for the children,” she said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at a security conference in Slovakia, warned of the dangers posed by those who “quietly condone” Islamic State militants’ extremist ideology.
The sisters and their children went missing after travelling to Saudi Arabia for a religious pilgrimage on 28 May.
Instead of flying home as their families expected, the group went missing and apparently flew to Turkey.
On Tuesday, two of their husbands made an emotional appeal for them to return.
But the IS smuggler told BBC Middle East correspondent Paul Wood they then split into two groups to cross the border into Syria.
He said the first group went early on Wednesday and the second on Thursday.
The information fits with the news that Zohra sent a message to her family that she was inside Syria – but did not say exactly where.
The women’s brother is understood to be fighting with extremists in Syria, …read more
Source:: BBC UK
