LONDON: As hundreds of radical volunteers who left Europe to fight for Daesh return home from the Middle East, the British government is facing growing scrutiny over how it deals with the wives and children who accompany them.
In June 2014 Daesh claimed to have established a caliphate across a large swathe of eastern Syria and western Iraq. It demanded that Muslims everywhere pledge allegiance to its self-declared state.
A mixture of hardened extremists, convicted criminals and vulnerable young high school students from across Europe rallied to the cause, encouraged by the militants’ slick social media campaign and their formidable reputation.
But as the true nature of life under Daesh’s brutal rule became apparent and the group gradually lost ground to an international military coalition led by the US, the volunteers began to trickle home.
Last week the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, warned that hundreds of Daesh recruits drawn from the Continent are women whose precise roles “remains elusive.” This has left analysts divided over how the British government should deal with its returnees in the months and years ahead.
Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, told Arab News that Daesh recruits needed to be judged on a case-by-case basis.
“Should they be allowed back? Should they be detained? Do we let them live together in society? Or do we shun them? In my opinion, you have to look to some kind of integration if they haven’t committed a crime,” he said.
While local authorities in countries such as Denmark and Sweden run rehabilitation and reintegration programs for their returning militants, opinion in the UK is split over how best to deal with British radicals who went to Syria and Iraq.
In December, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson caused controversy when he told the Daily Mail that Britons who have fought for Daesh should never “be allowed back into this country.” His fellow minister Rory Stewart told BBC radio last autumn that “in almost every case” the only way to deal with British Daesh recruits was “to kill them” before they return home.
The recent Frontex report estimates that almost 1,000 women from Europe have joined militant groups in Syria, Iraq or Libya, with most of them filling the ranks of Daesh. Adding to an already complex situation are “several hundred minors” who were born or brought up in and around the battlefields of the Middle East. It warned that while the exact responsibilities of the female recruits have proved difficult to determine, “many women have expressed the desire to take more active roles within Daesh.”
But experts told Arab News that the UK would be wrong to try to arrest every extremist who arrives home in the weeks and months ahead.
“Reintegration programs are the way forward. If you put a blanket ban on all returnees associated with (Daesh) and just leave them out of the country, you’re not dealing with the issue,” said Lucas. “You’ll probably feed further radicalization by fueling their anger and estrangement.”
In 2006 the government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair formally announced a new counter-terrorism strategy known as Prevent, with the aim of identifying potential extremists and stopping them from joining radical groups. The strategy has proved highly divisive, with critics arguing that it encourages Muslims to spy on each other.
There is still no major government-run rehabilitation scheme for former Daesh members and in 2014 the UK passed legislation that allows it to strip terrorism suspects of their citizenship, even if it means they are left stateless.
Chris Doyle, the director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, called for the cases of all returnees to be assessed on their own merits. He told Arab News many Daesh recruits “became deeply disillusioned by what they found” in Syria and Iraq and should be carefully integrated back into British society, while those who remained loyal to the extremist group could be imprisoned.
“We can’t create a situation where they feel they can’t return because there is no option for them,” he said.
Last October the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank, estimated that 850 British Daesh recruits had gone to Syria or Iraq, compared to 915 from Germany and 1,910 from France. It estimated that 425 of the Britons had already returned home.
Anthony Glees, director of the center for security and intelligence studies at the University of Buckingham, told Arab News that the British government was right to try to stop Daesh recruits returning to the UK.
“We are talking about highly dangerous individuals who will have had battlefield experience and training in explosives. Their ‘brides’ may also have been radicalized by the violence their husbands have been involved in,” he said.
UK split over whether to kill or ‘cure’ Daesh recruits
UK split over whether to kill or ‘cure’ Daesh recruits
World welcomes 2026 with fireworks after year of turmoil
- Australia holds defiant celebrations after its worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years
- Hong Kong holds a subdued event after a deadly fire in tower blocks
PARIS, France: People around the globe toasted the end of 2025 on Wednesday, bidding farewell to one of the hottest years on record, packed with Trump tariffs, a Gaza truce and vain hopes for peace in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used his traditional New Year address to tell his compatriots their military “heroes” would deliver victory in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, while his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was “10 percent” away from a deal to end the fighting.
Earlier, New Year celebrations took on a somber tone in Sydney as revellers held a minute of silence for victims of the Bondi Beach shooting before nine tons of fireworks lit up the harbor city at the stroke of midnight.
Seeing in the New Year in Moscow, Natalia Spirina, a pensioner from the central city of Ulyanovsk, said that in 2026 she hoped for “our military operation to end as soon as possible, for the guys to come home and for peace and stability to finally be established in Russia.”
Over the border in Vyshgorod, Ukrainian beauty salon manager Daria Lushchyk said the war had made her work “hell” — but that her clients were still coming regardless.
“Nothing can stop our Ukrainian girls from coming in and getting themselves glam,” Lushchyk said.
Back in Sydney, heavily armed police patrolled among hundreds of thousands of people lining the shore barely two weeks after a father and son allegedly opened fire on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for almost 30 years.
Parties paused for a minute of silence an hour before midnight, with the famed Sydney Harbor Bridge bathed in white light to symbolize peace.
Pacific nations including Kiribati and New Zealand were the first to see in 2026, with Seoul and Tokyo following Sydney in celebrations that will stretch to glitzy New York via Scotland’s Hogmanay festival.
More than two million people are expected to pack Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach for what authorities have called the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve party.
In Hong Kong, a major New Year fireworks display planned for Victoria Harbor was canceled in homage to 161 people killed in a fire in November that engulfed several apartment blocks.
Truce and tariffs
This year has brought a mix of stress and excitement for many, war for others still — and offbeat trends, with Labubu dolls becoming a worldwide craze.
Thieves plundered the Louvre in a daring heist, and K-pop heartthrobs BTS made their long-awaited return.
The world lost pioneering zoologist Jane Goodall, the Vatican chose a new, American, pope and the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk laid bare America’s deep political divisions.
Donald Trump returned as US president in January, launching a tariff blitz that sent global markets into meltdown.
Trump used his Truth Social platform to lash out at his sliding approval ratings ahead of midterm elections to be held in November.
“Isn’t it nice to have a STRONG BORDER, No Inflation, a powerful Military, and great Economy??? Happy New Year!” he wrote.
After two years of war that left much of the Gaza Strip in ruins, US pressure helped land a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October — though both sides have accused each other of flagrant violations.
“We bid farewell to 2025 with deep sorrow and grief,” said Gaza City resident Shireen Al-Kayali. “We lost a lot of people and our possessions. We lived a difficult and harsh life, displaced from one city to another, under bombardment and in terror.”
In contrast, there was optimism despite abiding internal challenges in Syria, where residents of the capital Damascus celebrated a full year since the fall of Bashar Assad.
“There is no fear, the people are happy, all of Syria is one and united, and God willing ... it will be a good year for the people and the wise leadership,” marketing manager Sahar Al-Said, 33, told AFP against a backdrop of ringing bells near Damascus’s Bab Touma neighborhood.
“I hope, God willing, that we will love each other. Loving each other is enough,” said Bashar Al-Qaderi, 28.
Sports, space and AI
In Dubai, thousands of revellers queued for up to nine hours for a spectacular fireworks and laser display at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
After a build-up featuring jet skis and floating pianos on an adjacent lake, a 10-minute burst of pyrotechnics and LED effects lit up the needle-shaped, 828-meter tall (2,717-feet) tower.
The coming 12 months promise to be full of sports, space and questions over artificial intelligence.
NASA’s Artemis II mission, backed by tech titan Elon Musk, will launch a crewed spacecraft to circle the moon during a 10-day flight, more than 50 years since the last Apollo lunar mission.
After years of unbridled enthusiasm, AI is facing scrutiny and nervous investors are questioning whether the boom might now resemble a market bubble.
Athletes will gather in Italy in February for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
And for a few weeks in June and July, 48 nations will compete in the biggest football World Cup in history in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
