Online posts that chart her spiral into extremism
HERE for the first time are the entries in Lisa Smith’s Facebook page, showing her gradual move into radical Islam. Many of her entries glorify Isis and denounce Western liberal values.
2012: Muslim convert Lisa Smith is in communication with radicals abroad, especially a couple with whom she has contact by Facebook video.
February 2012: Her page is mostly light content, with many photos of cute animals and nature scenes.
July 2012: She starts wearing the veil for the first time, and invites female Muslim friends to do the same. She jokes that she is taking ‘baby steps’ in wearing the veil, or niqab.
Late 2012: She travels to Istanbul and marvels at the Blue Mosque, and continues to communicate with radicals.
2013: She moves to an Isis recruitment hub in northern Tunisia, where she mixes with radicals released from prison after the country’s Arab Spring uprising.
2013-2014: She marries a man she met in Tunisia. She travels to Muslim religious sites around the country and says she reads the Koran every day ‘on my couch’.
November 2014: She posts a photo of women in full cover, including their faces, with the heading: ‘Beautiful Things Don’t Ask for Attention.’
March 2015: She posts from a New York Times article, showing that Isis is holding out in Iraq, to which a friend gives congratulations to Isis in Arabic.
2016: Photos from Syria appear in her page.
May 2016: She posts photos of children injured by Russia’s relentless bombing campaign in Syria.
Mid 2016: Her father writes to her on Facebook, saying he isn’t able to reach her on Facebook chat and tells her he misses her.
Early 2019: She is discovered in Isis’s last holdout in eastern Syria and conducts an interview broadcast on ITV.