The grandmother of a young British boy thought to feature in the latest Islamic State video says it is “really devastating” he has been taken away from her.
Victoria Dare said she recognised Isa – thought to be aged under five – by his eyes and mouth, but that she was not looking at him as if he was her grandson.Speaking on the BBC’s The One Show, Dare explained that she had not seen Isa or her daughter Grace “Khadijah” Dare, a Muslim convert from Lewisham in south-east London, since 2012.
She said: “I am not taking it as he is my grandson to be in that situation. That is the way I can deal with the situation. I am not looking as if it is my grandson. Naturally it is my grandson, but this is not what God gave me.”
Dare added that she still called her daughter Grace, and said she missed them a lot because the joy had been taken away from her. “I am very unhappy,” she said.
Isa’s grandfather, Henry Dare, has said that he believes the youngster is merely being used as a shield by the terrorists.
Police are working to determine whether the boy is one of the sons of Grace Dare. Henry Dare told Channel 4 News: “He’s [used] for propaganda. He doesn’t know anything. They [Isis] are just using him as a shield. She [Khadijah] should come back and face the music because she has left herself down. All of us, she’s let us down.”
Most of the video footage, which has yet to be independently verified, features a masked man who insults prime minister David Cameron, labelling him “an imbecile” for launching airstrikes in Syria, before killing a prisoner. Four other men then kill one prisoner each.
He speaks in a British accent and appears to mimic the style of the British man known as Jihadi John – real name Mohammed Emwazi – who was killed in a US drone strike in Syria in November.
The boy makes a fleeting appearance in a desert landscape at the end of the 10-minute video. Wearing camouflage clothing and a black headband, he speaks in what sounds like a British accent and says: “We are going to go kill the kuffar [non-believers] over there.”
Grace Dare was brought up as a Christian but converted to Islam and started using the first name Khadijah, her family said. She travelled to Syria in 2012 and married Swedish Islamic fighter Abu Bakr, who is believed to have since been killed.
No comments:
Post a Comment