The young woman who left Alabama to join ISIS in 2014 and now wants to come home says she hopes people will have sympathy for her, according to a report from ABC News. The woman, Hoda Muthana, is pleading to come home after spending more that four years with ISIS. “I hope they excuse me because of how young and ignorant I was. Now I’m changed. Now I’m a mother and I have none of the ideology and hopefully everyone will see it when I come back,” she said during an interview with ABC News. “I hope America doesn’t think I’m a threat to them and I hope they can accept me.” UPDATE: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Muthana is not a U.S. citizen. Muthana suggested going through therapy once she’s back in the US. “Maybe therapy lessons. Maybe a process that will ensure us we will never do this again. I am definitely planning, definitely wanting people to not make the same decision that I’ve made,” she told ABC News. “I hope they excuse me because of how young and ignorant I was. Now I’m changed. Now I’m a mother and I have none of the idealology and hopefully everyone will see it when I come back.” While overseas, she said she often saw dead bodies and dismembered people. She said they had to eat grass and cow feed for food at one point. “Seeing my son eat grass, that was my last day,” she said. In a handwritten note obtained by CNN, Muthana said she knew she and her 18-month-old son did not belong there. She hopes she doesn’t face jail time, but understands it is a real possibility for her once she is back in the United States. “Jail time, I don’t know if that has an effect on people. I need help mentally as well. I don’t have the ideology anymore but I’m just traumatized from my experience,” Muthana told ABC. “I almost cried myself to sleep everyday because I know that when I do get back, I will probably be sentenced to jail for I don’t know how much time and thinking that my last few moments with him [gesturing to her son] is stuck in a prison before another prison.” On Saturday, President Trump called on European allies to take back the more than 800 ISIS fighters the U.S. has captured in Syria. “The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them.........” Trump said in a tweet posted late Saturday night. The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them........ — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2019 A young woman from London, Shamima Begum, who left her home to join ISIS in 2015 who is also trying to come home just had her citizenship revoked, according to a report from The Guardian. British officials say Begum could apply for citizenship in Bangladesh since her family is of Bangladeshi heritage. However, Begum says she has never been to Bangladesh. Congressmen Mo Brooks and Gary Palmer did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.<doc-sep>See the recovery efforts in Gaza as ceasefire appears to hold 'Is everything I'm trying to do pointless? ': Syrians helpless in face of 'sham' election Report: US companies may have benefited from forced labor of Uyghurs Residents stand near stalls along a road amidst debris while strong winds batter Balasore district in Odisha state on May 26, 2021 as Cyclone Yaas barrels towards India's eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP) (Photo by DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP via Getty Images) France's President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame speak as they walk in the grounds of The Presidential Palace in Kigali on May 27, 2021, after their press conference and prior to their official luncheon. - French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on May 27, 2021, for a highly symbolic visit aimed at moving on from three decades of diplomatic tensions over France's role in the 1994 genocide in the country. Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the East African nation, which has long accused France of complicity in the killing of some 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images) (CNN) — At the age of 19, a young woman from Hoover, Alabama traveled to Syria to join ISIS – the so-called “Islamic State.” Five years and three husbands later, she says she regrets what she did and is begging to return to the US. In a recent handwritten note obtained by CNN from a family representative, Hoda Muthana writes, “When I left to Syria I was a naive, angry, and arrogant young woman. I thought that I understood my religious beliefs.” Hoover High School Yearbook Hoda Muthana But after witnessing the devastation of war, including the death of two husbands, Muthana said she became disillusioned. “During my years in Syria I would see and experience a way of life and the terrible effects of war which changed me. Seeing bloodshed up close changed me. Motherhood changed me. Seeing friends, children, and the men I married dying changed me,” the now 24-year-old wrote. “Seeing how different a society could be compared to the beloved America I was born and raised into changed me. Being where I was and seeing the (people) around me scared me because I realized I didn’t want to be a part of this. My beliefs weren’t the same as theirs.” CNN has not yet been able to speak with her directly. Provided to CNN Outspoken support Once described as shy and reserved by a high school classmate, Muthana was fiercely outspoken in her support for jihad after joining ISIS. During the height of the self-declared caliphate, Muthana posted tweets calling for violence, according to the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University. “Hoda was right in the mix for English language propagandists,” said terror researcher Seamus Hughes. “We followed her for a number of years. She was a key node.” She demanded more Americans come to the self-proclaimed Caliphate and join the fight with ISIS. Gabriel Chaim for CNN Coalition jets hit ISIS positions in Susa, Syria, in January. “Soooo many Aussies and Brits here, but where are the Americans, wake up u cowards,” she posted in January 2015. And under the name Umm Jihad, she encouraged attacks in the US, tweeting this exhortation in March 2015: “Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them.” According to Mia Bloom, who tracks female jihadis at Georgia State University, “She was one advocating for extreme violence, especially against American military and servicemen.” 05:43 - Source: CNN ISIS wife: It was like Tinder Regret In a February 19 interview with ABC News, Muthana said she is now ashamed of those posts, and wishes she could take them back. She said she feels remorse and sorrow and regret, and begged to return home. “I hope America doesn’t think I’m a threat to them and I hope they can accept me,” she told ABC. But if she does end up returning to the US, it may not be on her own terms. Hassan Shibly, head of Florida’s Council on American-Islamic Relations and a representative for her family, said the family understands Muthana may be prosecuted, believes in the legal system, and asks only for due process. The Justice Department did not comment on whether she would be extradited or prosecuted. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Tuesday that he could not discuss her particular case, but said that for any ISIS members in Syria, the department’s policy, “in this regard, would be to repatriate them – and that’s what we call on all countries to do.” Asked if ISIS members could be sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Palladino would only say: “The US government is considering various alternative disposition options, for foreign terrorist fighters who cannot be repatriated.” 01:55 - Source: CNN CNN goes inside last ISIS enclave Kurdish refuge According to Muthana, she ran away from ISIS a few weeks ago and headed for the Kurdish area in northern Syria, where she is now in a camp for the displaced with her 18-month-old son. In her note, she speaks of her son’s future. “In my quiet moments – in between bombings, starvation, cold, and fear – I would look at my beautiful little boy, and know that I didn’t belong here, and neither did he,” she wrote. Only now does she “really understand how important the freedoms that we have in America are.” But Hughes, the researcher, has words of caution. “Let’s not put a rosy color on what she did,” he said. “She joined a foreign terrorist organization.” CNN’s David Shortell contributed to this report.<doc-sep>"After being smuggled into the caliphate, the student, Hoda Muthana, posted a photograph on Twitter showing her gloved hands holding her American passport. 'Bonfire soon,' she promised. New York Times : " 2 American Wives of ISIS Militants Want to Return Home " — "She was a 20-year-old college student in Alabama who had become convinced of the righteousness of the Islamic State. So she duped her parents into thinking she was going on a college trip, and instead bought a plane ticket to Turkey with her tuition money. Martin Chulov , Middle East correspondent for the Guardian. He interviewed Hoda Muthana, an American woman who joined Isis four years ago, in the Syrian refugee camp al-Hawl. ( @martinchulov ) Want more from the show? You can get messages right from our hosts (and more opportunities to engage with the show) sent directly to your inbox with the On Point newsletter. Subscribe here . She says she’s willing to face justice here in the U.S., but should she be allowed to come home? An American woman joined the Islamic State, went to Syria, married three ISIS fighters and called for attacks on Americans. But now, she says she was brainwashed, is rejecting extremism and wants to come back — with her child. "That was more than four years ago. Now, after being married to three Islamic State fighters and witnessing executions like those she had once cheered on social media, Ms. Muthana says she is deeply sorry and wants to return home to the United States. "She surrendered last month to the coalition forces fighting ISIS, and now spends her days as a detainee in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria. She is joined there by another woman, Kimberly Gwen Polman, 46, who had studied legal administration in Canada before joining the caliphate and who possesses dual United States and Canadian citizenship. "Both women, interviewed by The New York Times at the camp, said they were trying to figure out how to have their passports reissued, and how to win the sympathy of the two nations they scorned. "'I don’t have words for how much regret I have,' said Ms. Polman, who was born into a Reformed Mennonite community in Hamilton, Ontario, to an American mother and Canadian father and who has three adult children." The Guardian: "Hoda Muthana 'deeply regrets' joining Isis and wants to return home" — "An American woman captured by Kurdish forces after fleeing the last pocket of land controlled by Islamic State says she “deeply regrets” travelling to Syria to join the terror group and has pleaded to be allowed to return to her family in Alabama. "Once one of Isis’s most prominent online agitators who took to social media to call for the blood of Americans to be spilled, Hoda Muthana, 24, claims to have made a “big mistake” when she left the US four years ago and says she was brainwashed into doing so online. "Speaking from al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, while her 18-month-old son played at her feet, Muthana said she misunderstood her faith, and that friends she had at the time believed they were following Islamic tenets when they aligned themselves to Isis." Fox News: "ISIS wife from Alabama will not be admitted to the US, Pompeo says" — "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that an Alabama woman who joined ISIS but now wants to return home with the 18-month-old son she had with her ISIS husband will not be admitted back into the United States, saying she is not a U.S. citizen. "'Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States,' Pompeo said in a statement. 'She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria.' "Shortly afterward, President Trump said he ordered Pompeo not to admit Muthana. "'I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!' the president tweeted." NPR: "British Woman Who Joined ISIS In Syria As Teen Is Stripped Of U.K. Citizenship" — "The British woman who moved from London to Syria in 2015 to join the Islamic State won't be able to return to England, British officials say. A lawyer for the family says 19-year-old Shamima Begum's citizenship is being revoked — an action that could render her stateless. "Begum had wanted to return before the birth of her third child, but British Security Minister Ben Wallace said he was unwilling to risk British lives 'to go looking for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state,' according to The Guardian. Despite the urging of President Trump, European countries in general have been reluctant to welcome back citizens who have sided with the Islamic State. "A letter sent Tuesday from the Home Office to Begum's mother, and obtained by ITV News, said: 'In light of the circumstances of your daughter ... the order removing her British citizenship has subsequently been made.' The Home Office asked the mother to inform her daughter of the decision, along with her right to appeal." Anna Bauman produced this hour for broadcast.<doc-sep>They began talking about making a run for it, and they said they shared their growing horror over the choices they had made. “It’s hard to change your mind-set when you have lost everything and sacrificed everything. Even if you feel a tug that tells you something’s not right here, this isn’t O.K., and that there’s too many holes here, something’s wrong, I think it’s very, very difficult when you feel like you have burned bridges, to know how to shift,” Ms. Polman said. ISIS forbade anyone to leave, planting land mines and using snipers to shoot down anyone who tried. But last month, Ms. Muthana said, she decided to give it a try by latching on to a Syrian family who left Shafa at dusk. All she took was her baby and his stroller, she said. When darkness fell, the group got lost and spent the night in the frigid cold, she said. The next day, Jan. 10, she completed the journey and surrendered to American troops in the Syrian desert, who fingerprinted her. Days later, Ms. Polman followed the same route and surrendered as well. Weeks later, after having no contact from the American or Canadian authorities, she and Ms. Muthana reached out to the Red Cross to get help. They are also in touch with a lawyer who is trying to help navigate their return to North America. Ms. Muthana gave a handwritten note to the lawyer. “I realized how I didn’t appreciate or maybe even really understand how important the freedoms that we have in America are. I do now,” she wrote. “To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly.” Mr. Hughes, the deputy director of the George Washington University Program on Extremism, said the United States had an obligation to bring her home — “albeit in handcuffs.”<doc-sep>
A Hoover woman who traveled to Syria and joined ISIS wants to come back home, according to a recent interview. Update: Alabama woman who joined ISIS ‘ready to face the consequences’ In an interview with The Guardian released Monday morning, Hoda Muthana said she “deeply regrets” joining the Islamic State. “I don’t know, I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God,” she said in the recorded interview. “And when I came here and saw everything with my own eyes I realized I’ve made a big mistake.” According to a report from The Guardian, Muthana was captured by Kurdish forces after fleeing the last area of land controlled by ISIS and is currently in a refugee camp in northern Syria. She has an 18-month-old son, the report said. Muthana said in the recorded interview she “ruined [her] future and [her] son’s future.” She also told the news outlet she and other recruits joined ISIS because they were “ignorant” and “brainwashed.” According to a report from USA Today, Muthana was married three times in Syria. Her first two husbands died fighting for ISIS, and she is believed to be the only American woman inside the al-Hawl refugee camp. Her current legal status is not clear, the report said, and immigration officials have not commented about her case. In November 2014, Muthana abandoned her family and fled to Syria to join the radical Islamic group. She was quiet and reserved in the halls of Hoover High School, a former classmate said. She graduated in 2013, and briefly attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham before leaving the country. Muthana told her family she was traveling to Atlanta for a school trip. Instead, inspired by Islamic State radicals she had met online, Muthana left Atlanta on her way to Turkey before going to Syria. When she arrived, Muthana became a recruiter for ISIS on Twitter. Muthana, whose family is Muslim but does not agree with the extreme views of ISIS, began delving more into jihadist interpretations of Islam that she found on the Internet after she graduated from Hoover High School and started college at UAB, according to an article published on BuzzFeed. A family spokesperson, Hassan Shibly spoke in 2015 at the mosque where the Muthana family attends after the woman fled. He said the family was “extremely traumatized” for months and has been in contact with law enforcement and government officials since she disappeared while also pleading with their daughter to return home. “For them this is worse than losing the life of a child, to have them join such a horrible, horrible gang of violent extremists,” Shibly said. “Nothing can describe the pain they are facing.” Shibly is an attorney and chief executive director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He said the family isn’t sure when Muthana made contact with ISIS militants, she withdrew from the Muslim community in Birmingham more than a year before her disappearance. “The reason she withdrew from the community is because the Muslim community is very vocal against groups like ISIS ... she made the decision based on her communication online with them that she wanted to join them,” Shibly said.