Umar Farooq
February 21, 2019•Update: February 21, 2019
By Umar Farooq
WASHINGTON
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that an American woman who fled the U.S. to join the Daesh terrorist group in Syria would not be taken back to the country.
Muthana first left the U.S. when she was 20 years old, joining Daesh and settling in the terrorist group's stronghold of Raqqa. It was there she became more vocalized on Twitter, advocating on behalf of Daesh.
"Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping! Go on , and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day ... Kill them," Muthana tweeted, according to multiple reports.
Her Twitter account has been suspended.
"Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States," Pompeo said in a statement.
However, Hassan Shibly, head of the Council of American-Islamic Relations and Muthana's lawyer, refuted Pompeo, saying the Alabama woman is an American citizen.
"Hoda Muthana had a valid US passport and is a citizen. She was born in Hackensack, NJ in October 1994, months after her father stopped being a diplomat," Shibly said in a responding statement.
Most people born in the United States are accorded so-called birthright citizenship but there are exceptions.
One born to a foreign diplomatic officer is automatically considered a U.S. citizen at birth. However, Muthana's lawyer said her father informed the government he was no longer a diplomat before she was born.
Shibly also tweeted a photo of Muthana's birth certificate, showing that she was born Oct. 28, in New Jersey.
Muthana, now 24 and with an 18 month-old son, had recently been seeking to return to the United and told The Guardian that she "deeply regrets" joining Daesh and simply wants to return home to her family in Alabama.
She is currently in the al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, where she is the only American amongst 39,000 people living in the camp.
"We were basically in the time of ignorance … and then became if you like to describe it that way," she told the newspaper. "I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God."
Muthana told The Guardian she had been in contact with U.S. officials and pleaded with them for forgiveness.
"I believe that America gives second chances. I want to return and I’ll never come back to the Middle East. America can take my passport and I wouldn’t mind," she said.
