A 26-year-old British Muslim mother, who fled Britain to live in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, has clashed in court with a prosecutor over whether she encouraged terrorism through her social media updates.
In 2014, Tareena Shakil had fled Birmingham with her baby son to live in Raqqa before ralising she had “made a mistake.”
In the courtroom, Shakeel denied joining the terrorist group and told Birmingham Crown court that all she wanted was to take her son to live a better life in the caliphate.
According to Sky News, prosecutor Sean Larkin QC questioned her repeatedly about why she followed people on Twitter who had been celebrated IS fighters.
Shakil replied: “How am I responsible for their actions? I am only responsible for my own.”
As for retweeting messages She was asked why she retweeted messages from Quran interspersed with images of groups of IS fighters, she said, “If you are saying Quranic passages encourage terrorism … if that is the case every Muslim would be a terrorist. Where is the messages where I encourage any act of terrorism, where are the messages where I glorify any act of terrorism?”
At one point during their feisty exchange Sean Larkin QC said: “If you don’t mind I will ask the questions and you give the answers Miss Shakil.”
Shakil kept defending her decision to go to Syria until she became disillusioned with too much restrictions imposed by the IS fighters.
She said, “If it (inciting terrorism) was my intention I would have been doing it when I was in the capital of the Islamic State – I wasn’t.”
She also informed the court that she along with her baby son escaped in January 2015, before travelling north towards Turkey and crossing the border.
She’s denied all charges of inciting terrorism through her support for the dreaded terrorist organisation on social media.
The trial continues.
(Photo: courtesy Sky News)
