Woman takes toddler to join ISIS

She taught her 14-month-old son to say, 'Allah Akbara.'

Twenty-six-year-old Tareena Shakil told her family she would be vacationing in Turkey with her 14-month-old son. The next time her family heard from her, Shakil and her son were in Syria - and had joined the terrorist organization ISIS.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - According to the Indepentent, Shakil left Birmingham, England in October 2014. She lied to her family and traveled to Raqqa to join ISIS.

Shakil left notes for her family reading "If you are reading this then I am long gone...I love you all, never forget that. I won't say goodbye because this isn't the end....We will meet again In'shallah. Don't cry mum or anyone x."

She also sent her husband a message telling him they were through, though she did add they would meet again in "jannah," meaning "paradise."

Upon arriving, she was married to an ISIS fighter, but weeks later was sent to a mansion (Maqqar) with other single women. Shakil complained that the rules were too strict, prompting her to leave.

"You're phone was taken off you and there was this evil Saudi woman who ran the house for single women, known as a maqqa. No phones, no ipads - if you get caught there are big problems - rules if you are not Syrian and not married, how she expected you to act, taking turns cooking and cleaning and womanly duties," Shakil recalled.

In a message to other women, Shakil was caught writing that single women should "not come alone...I'm married ukhti [sister]. Life is hard 4 single sisters, too many sisters run. Please don't come alone, u have to be married here ukhti. Trust me, u r young, look after ur parents and tell all single sisters, I said don't come alone."

Despite the obvious relationship between Shakil and ISIS, on Friday, she stood before the Birmingham Crown Court and denied she was involved with the terrorist nation.

Shakil claimed the conditions were so bad that she had to escape from ISIS by bribing a taxi driver to taker her toward the Turkish border and she was forced to cross into Turkey on foot. 
She recounted: "I said stop, threw money at him, grabbed (my son), grabbed the nappies and just ran across the fields to the border. There were three Isis [sic] fighters but they had their backs to me. They didn't see me."

Shakil turned herself into the Turkish military patrol once she crossed and was detained for six weeks before she was flown back to Britain. 

From there, she was questioned by British intelligence officers from MI5 and was eventually sent to trial for joining ISIS and for encouraging terrorism.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale stated: "Our assessment is that she was not naive; she had absolutely clear intentions when she left the UK, sending tweets encouraging the public to commit acts of terrorism here and then taking her young child to join Daesh (Isis) in Syria. 

"Photographs seized from her phone showed Ms [sic] Shakil posing with a firearm and wearing a Daesh balaclava. Another showed a rucksack with a Daesh logo and person holding a handgun. These were taken while she was in Syria. Ms [sic] Shakil had already incited others to commit terrorist acts on social media and having spent months living under Daesh, she no doubt presented a real threat on her return to the UK from the country early last year."

In response to the evidence on her social accounts, Shakil claimed she and her family were being monitored by ISIS and could not speak against them. 

Daily Mail reported Shakil initially claimed she really did go to Turkey but was kidnapped by ISIS. 
Judge Melbourne Inman called Shakil out on her lies, stating she told "lie after lie" to escape terror charges. Following a lengthy trial, in which Judge Inman spoke directly to Shakil to say: "You told lie after lie to the police and in court between February and November 2015, including that you were kidnapped, were not responsible for any tweets and any incriminating photographs were staged against your will.

"You pleaded not guilty and told more lies to the jury which they have understandably rejected...Most alarming is the fact that you took your son and how he was used. In your own evidence you described Raqqa as the most dangerous place on earth. That is one aspect of the aggravating feature of exposing your son to life with terrorists.

"The most abhorrent photographs were those taken of your son wearing a balaclava with an ISIS logo and specifically the photograph of your son, no more than a toddler, standing next to an AK47 under a title which, translated from the Arabic, means 'father of the British jihad.'

"You were well aware that the future which you had subjected your son to was very likely to be indoctrination and thereafter life as a terrorist fighter."

Khakil was given four years for joining the terrorist group ISIS and two more years for "encouraging acts of terror" and will be forced to register her location for the fifteen years following her release from prison.

With the trial at a close, Beale added: "Thanks to proactive counter-terrorism policing, we were able to intercept Shakil at the airport and put the necessary measures in place to protect her child from their mother's extremist ideology."

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