In 2014 something entirely unexpected happened to an American family. Their twenty-year-old daughter, a regular American college student decided to fly off into Turkey and make her way to Syria, to join ISIS. She told her family she was going to Atlanta on a field trip but instead withdrew from school and used the returned tuition money to book a plane ticket to Syria.
During her time abroad she was using her social media to speak out against America and call on others to spill the blood of Americans and took an oath to the caliphate to destroy the US. Now Hoda Muthana wants to come back into the US.
Muthana had a strict household while she was growing up in the US. She explained to the NYTimes that featured her story in their podcast “The American Women Who Joined ISIS” that “I couldn’t really do anything growing up you know. I couldn’t do any American things. […] Since I was given all these restrictions I just turned to my religion”. This led her to go online where she met other Muslims. She started to learn an extreme from of the religion from the others. This later led her to believe that she had to do a pilgrimage to the true Islamic state that has been declared. Muthana was terrified that if she did not do this she was not following her religion correctly and would end up in hell.
In Syria, Muthana posted on her social media burning her US passport—tweeting “Bonfire soon, no need for these anymore, alhamdulliah”. As well as “American’s wake up. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy. Enough of your sleeping. Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them.” On her Twitter, according to The Daily’s podcast by The New York Times. She was against America and a big advocate for this terrorist group.
Now since ISIS is in fragments and she wants a better life for her 18-month year old son, Muthana told NBC news that she doesn’t foresee any issues in returning to the US. But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Muthana was never a US citizen and the US has no obligation to take her back. Considering she was only given a passport because her father was a diplomat but lost his job–losing his diplomatic immunity. Therefore, making Muthana a Yemeni citizen. The Obama administration already revoked her passport in 2016 claiming it had been issued in error since there was not sufficient evidence she was a citizen of the US by birth.
On February 20, 2019 the US Department of State released a press statement stating “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. We continue to strongly advise all U.S. citizens not to travel to Syria.”
Considering our country has faced tough years with terrorism and war. Sadly, Hoda Muthana has been one of many that has left the US to join terrorist groups against the US.
xoxo,
Rose