Hoda Muthana fled her home in Alabama five years ago to join ISIS, burning her U.S. passport and proclaiming allegiance to the caliphate. She amassed a notable social media following, where she encouraged followers to massacre Americans. She even married three ISIS fighters and bore one of them a son.
Now, Muthana wants to return home.
Speaking with NBC News from a refugee camp in Syria, Muthana said she “deserves” a second chance at American life, explaining she wants to reconnect with her family.
“Anyone that believes in God believes that everyone deserves a second chance, no matter how harmful their sins were,” she said. “I want my son to be around my family, I want to go to school, I want to have a job and I want to have my own car.”
Muthana claims she now rejects the extreme rhetoric used by the Islamic State and other Islamic terrorist groups and told NBC News that she “regrets every single thing” she said. But regret alone will likely not be enough to earn her re-entry into the U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the direction of President Donald Trump, has said Muthana will not be allowed to return to the U.S.
“She’s a terrorist,” Pompeo said in February. – READ MORE