Jihadi schoolgirl’s dad took her to hate preacher’s rally at 13
Shock admission by man who blamed police when girl fled to join IS
THE flag-burning father of a runaway British jihadi schoolgirl yesterday admitted taking his daughter to an extremist rally when she was 13.
Abase Hussen – who blamed police for failing to stop his daughter fleeing to join IS earlier this year – conceded the teenager was ‘maybe’ influenced by the rally organised by banned terror group Al-Muhajiroun.
Mr Hussen told MPs last month, after his daughter Amira Abase fled to Syria aged 15, that he could think of ‘nothing’ to explain why she and two friends had decided to join IS, as well as keeping quiet about his own links to radicalism.
It then emerged he had been in caught in shocking video footage amid a flag-burning mob, screaming in rage at a protest outside the US embassy in London, in 2012. Also at the rally were hate cleric Anjem Choudary and Michael Adebowale, one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
He has now apologised for attending, but admitted going to two further rallies – with his impressionable daughter in tow.
One took place outside the Saudi embassy in London, in 2013, and is said to have been organised by the Islamic extremist group Al-Muhajiroun, founded by hate cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed and linked to many Islamic terror atrocities of the past decade.
Yesterday Mr Hussen, who went to this rally and another similar one with his daughter and wife Fetia, conceded they might have influenced the youngster, who would have been 13 at the time. ‘The only reason we took her first time, was because there was no one to look after her and we both felt it important to go,’ he said. The rally was held against the treatment of Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia after human rights violations, and Mr Hussen, 47, who is from Ethiopia, said: ‘We both lost many people back home, we wanted to try to get help for people back home, too many human rights violations there. Many died. Maybe it influenced her.’ Amira was one of three girls from Bethnal Green Academy in East London who flew to Turkey before being smuggled across the border into Syria in February. Soon after, in an extraordinary exchange at the home affairs select committee, Mr Hussen blamed the authorities for failing to stop his daughter running off to Syria. Asked by chairman Keith Vaz if Amira had been exposed to any extremism, Mr Hussen replied: ‘Not at all. Nothing.’ Yesterday respected analyst Shiraz Maher, senior fellow at The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London, tweeted: ‘Remember that Amira Abase’s father blamed the police for his daughter going to Syria and effectively misled Parliament with this nonsense.’ Mr Hussen told The Times yesterday that he felt ashamed to have been at the flag-burning rally. He said: ‘I went to show my feelings because my religion was being insulted, my faith. Protesting is not radical, it is our right.’ Asked why he was pictured at the front of the mob, he said: ‘ The crowd pushed me. I feel tricked. I did not know who they [ the organisers] were. I just followed the crowd, I feel ashamed.’ Mr Hussen came to Britain from Germany in 1999 and said he came ‘for democracy, for the freedom, for a better life for children, so they could learn English’. He said he was upset with his daughter joining IS, saying she was ‘just a normal kid who is a victim of extremists’. Mr Hussen said he felt ‘terrible’ to know he had been protesting with one of Mr Rigby’s killers and said: ‘It was brutal, it has nothing to do with Islam, it is not human. You don’t do things like this.’ Amira fled to become a ‘jihadi bride’ with her friends Shamima Begum, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16. A fourth girl from their school, Sharmeena Begum, left for Syria in December. Giving evidence to the MPs’ committee, Mr Hussen accused police of not doing enough to warn him and other parents. Last night Tory MP Michael Ellis, who sits on the committee, said: ‘I would certainly be in favour of Mr Hussen being recalled to give him a full opportunity to explain what he clearly did not when he appeared before us.
‘It’s shocking and outrageous anyone would think it appropriate to take their 13-year-old to such a rally. But then to tell a House of Commons committee you have no idea why a young teenager should seek to travel to Syria, when you have taken her to more than one of these events, is simply breathtaking.’
JIHADI GIRL’S DAD IS A FANATIC
From the Mail, March 23
WHEN Abase Hussen’s schoolgirl daughter Amira ran away to join Islamic State, he blamed the police for failing to stop her and received a fulsome apology from Met chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.
The Mail later revealed that Mr Hussen was himself a radical who had burned the American flag at a rally. Now we learn he was taking Amira on protest marches with Muslim fanatics from the age of 13.
With such parental guidance, it’s little wonder she became a fanatic herself – and even more extraordinary that Sir Bernard was so quick to grovel and hand a propaganda coup to Islamic militants.