Mother of Convicted Man Urges Government to Welcome Returning Jihadis with 'Good Intentions'

The mother of Yusuf Sarwar, a British man who was sentenced Friday on Syria-related terrorism charges, has published an open letter, accusing officials of pressuring her son into "pleading guilty to going to Syria."

In the letter — distributed by CAGE, a UK-based advocacy organisation — Mrs. Sarwar insisted that her son travelled to Syria to provide humanitarian aid, not to wage jihad. She urged the British government to welcome back returning jihadis with"'good intentions" and to "stop criminalising young Muslins who travel to Syria to fight against Bashar al-Assad."

Yusuf Sarwar and his friend Mohammed Nahin Ahmed, both 22-year-olds from Birmingham, were sentenced on Friday for engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist activities — after returning from an eight-month stint in Syria, where they fought alongside rebel groups. Both men, who pled guilty to terrorism charges in July, face 12 years and eight months in jail.

In an interview with VICE News, CAGE's Amandla Thomas-Johnson said that the sentencing was "disproportionate" and would discourage other families from coming forward with concerns about radicalized relatives.

In her letter, Mrs. Sarwar's references the views of Farooq Siddiqui: a former manager of the UK government's counter-terrorism "Prevent Strategy," who argued in June that UK citizens should be permitted to travel to take up arms against Assad's government — which British Prime Minister David Cameron has accused of "butchering its own people" with "medieval barbarity."

"As for people fighting in Syria," argued Siddiqui, "if they go with the intention to defend the civilian population from a dictator — a population we have abandoned — I accept their conviction until proven otherwise."

Mohammed Nahin Ahmed's family — who assisted the police in their investigation of the men — issued a statement condemning Friday's sentences as "too long." The family said: "We feel completely betrayed… This sends out the wrong message to other families who might have concerns about their sons and daughters, and now might not come forward."

In sentencing Sarwar and Ahmed, Judge Michael Topolski said that the two men were "deeply committed to violent extremism" and "were intending to be martyred on the battlefield."

In May 2013, the two men left Britain for Syria, where they fought joined up with the al-Nusra front: an insurgent group that is affiliated with al Qaeda. Sarwar — then a part-time computer science student — told his family that he was going on a school trip to Turkey. Ahmed told his parents that he was going on vacation.

But soon after they departed, Sarwar's family found a six-page, hand-written letter in which Yusuf admitted that he was traveling to Syria "to do jihad." Immediately, Sarwar's mother called the authorities.

The trip had been many months in the making. The men had talked online with Syrian extremists, and ordered reading material from Amazon: The Koran for Dummies and Islam for Dummies.

In January — at their families' urgings — the men returned to London, where they were greeted at Heathrow Airport by the West Midlands Police counter-terrorism squad.

Mrs. Sarwar insists that her son's role in Syria was non-military: "He has simply secured areas, dug graves, fasted and given food to areas which were in need of dire help."

The British Home Office estimates that some 500 British nationals have travelled to Syria, where they have joined a tangle of anti-government rebel groups, including the Free Syrian Army and the Islamic State. About half have returned.