- Medical student Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir praised Charlie Hebdo murders
- She was one of nine students who fled to Syria to treat ISIS Jihadi fighters
- Private schoolgirl sent a smiling selfie to sister before crossing into Syria
- Parents of the young medics have travelled to country to try and find them
Medical student Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir (above), who has travelled to Syria to treat Jihadi fighters, once praised the Charlie Hebdo murders
A British medical student who travelled to Syria to treat Jihadi fighters in Islamic State hospitals once praised the Charlie Hebdo murders, it emerged last night.
Private schoolgirl Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir sent a smiling selfie to her sister as she crossed the border from Turkey on March 13 to reach Islamic State territory.
The respected surgeon’s daughter is one of nine British doctors and students in their late teens or early 20s who are now believed to be volunteering in hospitals there.
Their families have all flocked to the border in a desperate attempt to bring their children home, saying that they had been ‘cheated, brainwashed’ by IS militants.
Yesterday, their parents issued a joint statement claiming that their children had travelled to the border to take part in ‘humanitarian’ work and had ‘excellent moral capabilities’.
But posts on what is believed to be Miss Abdelgadir’s Twitter account suggest that her views are less than moral and that she has indeed gone to work with IS.
She once retweeted: ‘The pictures that the 2 journalists produced on Islam and prophet Muhammed (saw) was more horrific then their killing.’
On the account, @Lenaalinglingg, she also called for Sharia law, retweeted a statement that homosexuality is a disease and criticised terror arrests, calling them ‘silly’.
The private schoolgirl condemned Muslims who joined the ‘not in my name’ campaign which rejects IS and Muslims who wore poppy headscarves to mark Remembrance Day.
She also once retweeted: ‘Fighting is not violence. Violence is tyranny, oppression, suppression & injustice. Only thru FIGHTING can we get OUT of VIOLENCE. #peace.’
it emerged that she is an ‘incredibly bright’ schoolgirl who attended Wisbech Grammar School in Cambridgeshire where fees are £12,000 a year.
The students’ parents believe that they have gone to Turkey to offer ‘voluntary medical help’ to Syrian refugees on the border.
They did, however, acknowledge that their children were missing and, when asked whether they thought their children might have joined IS, one father replied ‘we don’t know’.
‘Our sons and daughters have always been participating in humanitarian and good cause social work,’ the statement from the families said.
‘They have come to Turkey willingly to offer voluntary medical help to those refugees who are in need of medical care on Turkey’s borders.’
The nine medics have been named as Mohammed Wael Fadlallah, Tasneem Suliman, Ismail Hamdoun, Nada Sami Kader, Mohammed Elbadri Ibrahim, Rawan Kamal Zine El Abidine, Tamir Ahmed Abusibah, Lena Mamoun Abdelgadir and Sami Ahmed Kadir.
Yesterday, Chris Staley, head of Wisbech Grammar in Cambridgeshire, said Miss Abdelgadir, was ‘furiously bright’, ‘very normal’ and a ‘very focused young lady’.
He described her as a popular, typical pupil who had represented the school in sports including hockey, had got 7 A*s and was a member of the student council.
‘She was an incredibly bright and focused young lady who was clearly destined for great things on the medical or scientific side,’ he said.
The pupil, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, spent nine years she spent at the Cambridgeshire school before studying medicine at Khartoum’s private University of Medical Sciences and Technology.
Her parents sent her to Sudan to study so that she could reconnect with her Islamic roots. Instead, however, they fear she has been radicalised.
On March 12, just before she crossed the border, she sent a smiling photo and the message: ‘Don’t worry, we’ve reached Turkey and are on our way to volunteer helping wounded Syrian people.’
Her father, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn, Norfolk, where the family live, immediately flew to Turkey to find her.
He previously said: ‘We have decided not to return home unless we go with them. We sent out children to study [in Sudan] so that they would be surrounded by their culture.
‘But their decision to go to Syria has been a shock for all of us.’
Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, a Turkish opposition politician helping the families, said the medics were believed to be in Tel Abyad, which is under IS control.
He told The Observer: ‘The conflict out there is fierce, so medical help must be needed.
They have been cheated, brainwashed. That is what I, and their relatives, think.’
A spokeswoman for Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust said: ‘Our thoughts are with Mr Abdel-Gadir and his family at this difficult time.’
The Foreign Office said it was giving consular assistance to the families of seven Britons.
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