LONDON: An imprisoned former medical student from the UK who traveled to Syria to join Daesh has said that he hopes to return to Britain to “face justice,” the Daily Mail reported.
Ibrahim Ageed, 29, joined the terror group in 2015 aged 21, together with his brother, Mohammed, who was 23.
The pair left their final-year studies at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Leicester to travel to Turkiye and then Syria.
Ageed was captured and imprisoned after the collapse of Daesh in Syria and Iraq, and has spent the past four years in northeast Syria’s Al-Sina prison.
His story is similar to that of Shamima Begum, 23, who left London aged 15 with two school friends to join the terror group.
In an interview, Ageed claimed that it was his “right” to return to Britain, warning that Daesh “could make a comeback.”
He said: “I believe I’ll be subjected to the justice system, but I’m ready to face the music and I believe it’s my right, basically, to go back home.”
Ageed described being “completely isolated” while imprisoned, saying that people initially joined Daesh from around the world because they had “lost hope.”
He added: “Whether you can completely rid the world of these groups is a very difficult task.”
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Former UK medical student-turned-Daesh fighter wants to ‘face justice’ in Britain
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Former UK medical student-turned-Daesh fighter wants to ‘face justice’ in Britain
- Ibrahim Ageed, 29, has been imprisoned in Syria for past 4 years
- Brothers left final-year studies in Leicester to join terror group aged 21, 23
US sympathies shift to Palestinians from Israelis for first time: Gallup poll
- Poll: 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel
WASHINGTON: Americans for the first time sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis in their conflict, according to a Gallup poll released Friday, after the devastating Gaza war.
Views on the Middle East divide sharply along partisan lines, with the shift over the past year the result of more independents souring on Israel.
Overall, 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel, the poll said, with the rest undecided or saying they favored both or neither.
The gap is not statistically significant, but it marks the first time since Gallup asked the question more than two decades ago that Israel was not on top.
It also marks a sharp difference from just a year ago, when Israel led in sympathies 46 to 33 percent.
When asked about their sympathies, independents sided with the Palestinian people by 11 percentage points.
Members of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party continued to back Israel strongly, with 70 percent siding with Israel, although that figure has declined by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
Democrats’ views of Israel have grown increasingly negative since a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly broke with then US president Barack Obama on his diplomacy with Iran.
Israel since then has moved sharply to the right. Some Democratic voters faulted former president Joe Biden for not doing more to rein in Israel in its devastating offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
In the latest poll, 65 percent of Democrats sympathized with the Palestinians and 17 percent with Israel.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 US adults by telephone from February 2 to 16.
Views on the Middle East divide sharply along partisan lines, with the shift over the past year the result of more independents souring on Israel.
Overall, 41 percent of Americans sympathize more with the Palestinians and 36 percent sided with Israel, the poll said, with the rest undecided or saying they favored both or neither.
The gap is not statistically significant, but it marks the first time since Gallup asked the question more than two decades ago that Israel was not on top.
It also marks a sharp difference from just a year ago, when Israel led in sympathies 46 to 33 percent.
When asked about their sympathies, independents sided with the Palestinian people by 11 percentage points.
Members of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party continued to back Israel strongly, with 70 percent siding with Israel, although that figure has declined by 10 percentage points over the past decade.
Democrats’ views of Israel have grown increasingly negative since a decade ago, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly broke with then US president Barack Obama on his diplomacy with Iran.
Israel since then has moved sharply to the right. Some Democratic voters faulted former president Joe Biden for not doing more to rein in Israel in its devastating offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
In the latest poll, 65 percent of Democrats sympathized with the Palestinians and 17 percent with Israel.
Gallup surveyed 1,001 US adults by telephone from February 2 to 16.
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