Mother’s plea to fleeing jihadist
How Muslim parents tried to turn son away from war then alerted the police when he defied them
A DESPERATE mother begged her son not to travel to Syria to fight alongside brutal jihadists – branding him a ‘murderer’.
Yasmin Javeed told the 30-year- old science teacher he was following ‘a different religion’ which is ‘having the young children of mothers killed’.
She and her family even resorted to hiding his passport. When their pleas fell on deaf ears, they passed the police a secret recording of them begging him not to go.
Yesterday, Jamshed Javeed was jailed for six years after a judge rejected his defence that he did not support the jihadists’ brutal methods, and said his aim was to die a martyr.
The emotional argument at the family’s home in Manchester was secretly recorded by one of Javeed’s sisters on her mobile phone.
During the row the teacher’s mother accused him of being a ‘murderer’ because he had helped his younger brother, who is feared dead in Syria, to travel to the Middle East.
She told him: ‘If this religion doesn’t allow respect for a mother and father this is not the religion of my prophet, peace be upon him. Yours is a different religion.’ Judge Michael Topolski QC said she was addressing her own son ‘but also, it may be thought, speaking on behalf of many others’.
The case provides a rare and vivid insight into how the radicalisation of young Muslims can tear law-abiding families apart.
Javeed, who taught science at Sharples High School in Bolton, was popular with pupils and regarded as a settled, moderate Muslim who lived with his wife and child in a smart modern flat close to Manchester City’s Etihad stadium.
Previously clean-shaven, he grew a long beard after becoming radicalised by the online rants of hate preachers such as Anwar al-Awlaki, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
In 2013 he helped to pay for his brother Mohammed, then 20, to travel to Syria with fellow students Khalil Raoufi, 20, and Raphael Hostey, 22. Raoufi was killed fighting for Islamic State last year and Javeed’s brother – who was studying mechanical engineering at Liverpool John Moores University – is also presumed dead.
Javeed prepared to follow them to Syria that November, buying outdoor clothing, first-aid kits and plane tickets, but was thwarted when his family hid his passport. But he remained determined to join his friends, even after his wife Sha- meila revealed she was pregnant. In the recording, his father Akram, 51, who runs a successful cafe selling traditional Indian sweets, threatens to go to the authorities, saying: ‘I swear to my God, I’ll testify against you.’ But Javeed insists he is going ahead ‘regardless’. His final words to his family were: ‘Ring the police, then.’
Javeed had forged a friend’s signature to obtain a replacement passport but police were already moni- toring him and he was arrested. At his home, they found a rucksack containing £1,490 in cash, thermal gloves and combat- style trousers. He had also prepared a ‘go bag’, which included medical supplies and bundles of cash, and had searched online for terms such as ‘jihadist life in Syria’.
Javeed claimed he did not know the brutal reality that would unfold as Islamic State became more powerful in the months that followed. But prosecutors said references to gruesome images of severed heads on his social media profiles showed he was ready to kill and die.
Judge Topolski said: ‘Whether you believed you were fighting in a just cause is irrelevant. The law is clear – this was terrorism.’
He praised the ‘resolve and courage’ of Javeed’s family in trying to scupper his plans. They declined to comment after the case.
‘I swear to God I’ll testify against you’