Cardiff to Syria: The Journey to Jihad Week In Week Out

Their faces have been beamed around the world.

Young men from Cardiff who have gone to war in Syria.

We hope in the Khilafah it's imminent.

Tonight, we hear from a teenager we believe

He says, "I believe Jihad is obligatory, and

We can also reveal the gruesome tweets from the frontline.

Two years ago, we went undercover to expose

They've finally been banned and we had questions

Tonight, a warning to the authorities

If Cardiff doesn?t wake up now, when will it?

Cardiff, a city with a long history of multi-culturalism.

A city which prides itself on diversity and tolerance.

This is a message to the brothers. You have two ask yourself what

prevents you from joining the ranks of the Mujahideen? This video

emerged on the Internet. It is claimed to be by ISIS, a terrorist

group fighting in Syria and Iraq and responsible for terrible

atrocities. Two young men in the video are from Cardiff. This young

man is Reeyad Khan. He is 20 years old and he comes from a respectable

family. He did well in school and is known to have an interest in

politics, religion and social affairs. And now he appears to be

fighting in Syria. Not only does he claim to be fighting on the front

line, he appears to be tweeting on the front line, too. This Twitter

account cannot be verified, but it appears to show Reeyad Khan giving

an account of his role in Syria. Looking through these tweets it is

clear that Reeyad Khan has left his life in Cardiff behind him. There is

a chilling resonance about his new life out on the front line. In this

one, for instance, in April, he says, we just executed seven spies

trying to plant bombs. There was a massive turnout. We have checked

news reports and this did happen on that date in April. And making

another grisly reference, he'd tweets a photograph saying, some

Iranians Shia heads from a cheque points we hit. -- checkpoint. We

can't be 100% sure, but other events and date or point to this being a

genuine account of life fighting for ISIS by a young man from Cardiff,

Reeyad Khan. We share our information with his family. They

did not want to be interviewed, but friends that the family will take it

hard to take. The family will be shocked and horrified and

devastated. They are not able to tolerate this kind of behaviour and

news. It is going to be heartbreaking for his mother. It

will be hard for her to accept and believe that her own son is heading

in that direction. I just cannot make myself believe that is the same

person doing something over there. The Riyadh can't we saw here for all

those years, it is hard to believe that person can turn into a

different character and a different person doing this. Unless he has

purely been brain watched that Mac washed. Riyadh can't was born in

Cardiff. He went to a local school. A friend told us he was interested

in politics and religion. Did he have a fundamental religious belief?

He didn't. He thought terrorists and fundamentalists gave religion are

bad name. Did he talk about the politics of the world, particularly

the walls in the belief? Yes. He used to say how that things were in

Palestine and Israel and it was not right. Aged just 16, Reeyad was

filmed for a project about young people in Cardiff and even then he

expressed concerns about his future. If everything was going fine, I

would have nothing to be concerned with. This area needs a lot of

help. The youth as well. Me being part of that, I need help. I'm

trying to make things change. He said a lack of opportunity in his

community threatened to hold back people like himself. Poverty and

unemployment is higher here. There is a high percentage of ethnic

minorities. People put that together and a lot of people have love the

educational grades than areas where there are more white people. More

money can be used outside school because that is where people are

influenced. He's interview appears to be sadly acetic. Four years later

and Reeyad chose the path that will take him to fight in Syria. It is a

grieving situation when you know your loved one is out there in the

danger zone. You do not know his life, if he is safe. One we saw his

video, we know he is handling arms. As a father, as a mother, every time

the question will be, what is my son doing right now? It is absolutely

devastating. He turned our lives upside down. We can't sleep or eat.

We are very ill. Reeyad, please come back home. I am dying for you! You

are only son! Please come back, Reeyad. We just cannot accept that

he has turned into this kind of person. It is impossible to believe

it, that young boy. A year before the infamous ISIS video, Reeyad Khan

and Nasser Muthana, who met at college, were photographed at an

event helping people in need. Nasser's father prays in his son's

old room and he wonders what drove him to leave. I said, why have you

left me? What have I done? What wrong do I do? I a hypocrite and not

a Muslim like you? I pray and I pay my zukat. I do everything Islam

says, but I don't go looking to kill people or to be killed by other

people. Nasser's father does not know if he will ever see his son

again, but who remembers right young man he wanted to study medicine. Has

he always been a religiously conservative white? Not all the

time. He will go to the mosque and encourage me to go with him. I would

dry him and take him back. I didn't notice anything in his eyes. Maybe I

can't read his eyes or his lips. Maybe it's my fault, I did not raise

him right. I don't know. Last November, Nasser told his father and

the rest of the family that he was going to an Islamic conference in

Shrewsbury, but there was no conference and his family became

concerned when he'd not return home. The police came and then they told

me the story of how he travelled from Cardiff to Gatwick, from

Gatwick to Istanbul. From there he crossed the border into Syria. Then

we realised we had lost him. Within days of leaving Cardiff, Nasser

announced on Twitter that he had arrived safely in Syria. In the New

Year he claims ISIS have seized two tanks. He also says, we brought back

heads with us. Later he appears to say that his brother Aseel has

managed to make it to say that his brother Aseel has

managed Syria, too. say that his brother Aseel has

managed to make it With a second son leaving Cardiff or Syria, it has

caused more heartache for the family. Aseel left unexpectedly,

saying he was going to revise with a friend. He had a maths exam the next

day. He was going to stay with his friend because his friend is good at

maths. He was going to revise with him. The police said he left Cardiff

at seven o'clock by train to Gatwick. He stayed in Gatwick

Airport until the next day, 8:30am in the morning and then he flew to

Cyprus. This week, we managed to make contact online with a person we

believe to be Aseel Muthana and we put a number of questions to him.

and if he had a plan to return home. He says, I believe jihad is

obligatory, and I never had a plan to return to the UK. I asked him,

are you worried that by going out there, you have upset your family,

and that as a Muslim, you are fighting other Muslims? His response

- my brother made Hiijra before me, in other words, is brother answered

the call and went out there before him. After this, I saw how much my

family cried and were upset. It was so upsetting. I thought maybe one is

enough in the family to go for jihad. I understood Allah comes

first, so now I joined my bro. I asked him, is there anything you

miss about home? He said, I do not miss much, I have a new life here,

but would not mind seeing my family living here with me. I asked him if

he had been radicalised. He replies, 100% no. He claimed he had

chosen the path to Syria himself and went there alone. ISIS in Syria has

a slick PR machine and it appears to encourage its British fighters to go

online. It is not clear why these young men took such drastic action,

but fundamental questions remain, not least, how did they get to

Syria, and were they brainwashed or radicalised here in Cardiff to have

such extreme Islamic views? Haras Rafiq is an expert on

radicalisation, and he says there are a number of reasons why some

young Muslims might turn to extremism. Quite often, it is a

combination, but underpinning it is the personal crisis, the

indoctrination of jihadi theology which justifies a political cause, a

political ideology, which many people call Islamism. We have

Islamists operating in this country, and we have done for a long time,

who have a political view that they have to set up a caliphate somewhere

in the world, and Islamic, Muslim state, and then govern from their

version of Islamic law. And then what they want to do is spread that

state across the world. We are seeing this now in ISIS, in Iraq.

Revelation that these two young men from Cardiff had turned up in what

appears to be a terrorist recruitment video sent shock waves

around the community, the city and indeed the world. But it is not a

new problem. Two years ago, we made a programme about radicalisation in

Cardiff. An undercover reporter befriended a member of a group of

Islamic extremist 's. Rofi Islam regularly met up with our

undercover reporter, taking him to prayers and sending him links to

extremist websites. Rofi is part of a group of his

limits in Cardiff who believe that Islam will dominate the world, and

they are opposed to democracy and freedom. -- a group of extremists.

Led by this man, Sajid Idris, we revealed that they were holding

protests, trying to recruit people to join them and posting hardline

videos on the internet. No longer can you say this is jihad

for the sake of Allah because this becomes terrorism...! Rofi said the

best place to learn the Islam he believed in was a popular city

centre mosque in Cardiff, which they attended together.

Masjid in Arabic means mosque. Rofi told our undercover reporter to come

here to the Al-Manar mosque, which is popular with students and young

people. It is also where Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana came to pray. It

is now the focus of a huge amount of attention, with claims it might be

involved, unwittingly or not, in radicalising young Muslims in

Cardiff. Those mosques have had preachers

that are calling for fighting and jihad in Syria, and hate preachers.

Do you see that as a problem? It is a problem because those mosques may

not be telling people actually to go out and fight, but they are laying

the foundation, the theological foundation, which is very easy for

recruiters to come and move them on to the actual violence. From our

research, that particular mosque has heard a number of extremist, radical

preachers that I think are a huge part of the problem.

They include this man. Mohammed al-Arifi is a Saudi cleric who came

to the Al-Manar mosque in 2012. He was banned from coming to the UK

in March this year because of his views. And last December, another

Saudi cleric, Sheikh Adil Al Kelbani, was stopped from coming to

Britain as he tried to board a plane in Rio. He had also been due to

speak at the Al-Manar mosque. The trustees of the mosque declined our

request for an interview on the advice of their legal

representative, but last week, they did release a statement.

This trust has a close working relationship with South Wales Police

and has a firm policy in supporting community cohesion, and opposes any

extreme ideologies which contradict the peaceful teachings of Islam.

Cardiff is known to have had a problem with Islamic extremism for

more than ten years, and in 2012, the Home Office designated the city

as a priority area for special funding to combat it. Also in 2012,

three men from Cardiff were jailed for 38 years in total for terrorism

offences after a plot to blow up the London stock exchange was uncovered.

In our last programme, we revealed that each of those men had been at a

protest with Sajid Idris's group, and at least one of them, Abdul

Miah, attended their meetings. In 2011, two teenagers from Cardiff

were arrested by police in Kenya, and it was claimed they were trying

to get to Somalia to fight a holy war with a group affiliated to

Al-Qaeda, called Al-Shabab. The father of one of the teenagers

claimed his son had been brainwashed.

The other young man who tried to get to Somalia is Quran a cabal, 21

years of age, and we have discovered that he tried to get to Syria but

was arrested at Heathrow Airport. He is due to be sentenced in court this

week for separate terrorism offences. Online, he refers to

himself as the father of terrorism. And he, too, was connected with

Idris's group. Two years ago, Idris was criticised after putting a video

online calling for Muslims to physically support fight in Syria,

and he called for Sharia law in the Middle East. Sajid Idris has been

involved with Islamic extremists for years. Here, in 2002, he is with

radical cleric Omar Bakri, watched by supporters and journalists. Next

to him is Anjem Choudary, a leading light in banned Muslim organisations

Islam4UK and Muslims Against Crusades. I would say that there is

a significantly active group. It is not about numbers, it is about how

active they are, it is about quality rather than quantity, from their

perspective. A significant group for me is 20-30, maybe up to 50 people

who are actively involved. More recently, members of Idris's group

took part in a barbecue in Cardiff which was organised by the now

banned extremist group need for Khalifa. The pictures show the black

flag of ices being waved in a city park, and among those attending was

convicted terrorist Abu Izzadeen. We wanted to put some questions to Mr

Idris about his group's activities and links to a string this is. --

and links to other extremists. He refused a request for an interview

so we caught up with him at his workplace. Mr Idris, can we have a

word? Will you come and speak to us, Mr Idris? We would like to speak to

you. So, Mr Idris has gone to work, and for someone who makes a lot of

noise about his beliefs, he is proving to be very reluctant and shy

about talking to us. There have been a number of questions we would like

to put to him, but so far he has refused to answer any of them.

Rofi Islam also refused to be interviewed. But today, Sajid Idris

said he had never met the three Cardiff jihadist. Last week, the

Home Office finally banned their organisation, which had a new name,

the Islamic our association. The nicest video created headlines

around the world, and the three Cardiff jihadists promoted it and

joked about it. The youngest, 17-year-old Aseel, did not appear in

the video, but he has been talking online to us about his experiences

in Syria. Are you prepared to be a macho? -- to be a martyr? His

response is, Allah knows best. He has also been asked by other people

- do you have any fear? Who doesn't, he says, we are humans. He

is asked, have you seen any marchers? His response is - they

look like they are sleeping, honestly. They look very calm and

relaxed. Do you have any regrets about leaving the UK, and how far

are you willing to go for your cause? 's response is - no, I can

say I am willing to die. We put it to him that ISIS has been using

brutal methods, and how can he defend that? After a delay, he

answered that if it was done in the name of showreel, or Islamic law,

then he is for it. -- Sharia. News that young men from Cardiff have

gone to fight in Syria has shocked the Muslim community in the city. I

met up with egg group from this mosque. For me to see those two boys

was absolutely shocking, I did not know how to feel, to be honest. It

is very youthful, to look on TV and think about what is happening across

the world, and then to be motivated to do something about that. Does it

upset you to see these young men doing this? Definitely, it worries

me that there will be repercussions for the rest of the community, and

it gives a negative image of Islam and Muslims. Duvet in any way

represent wider opinion among the Muslim community in south Wales? I

do not think so. If you look at the community at large

do not think so. If you look at the has been condemned in most mosques,

and mosques are encouraging people to come forward and teach young

people that this is not appropriate. If there was an influence, it is

people who have kept themselves clandestinely whether it is or in

the city, people who know one is aware of. That is what needs to be

answered, and that is what frightens me, because maybe Nasser and Mathur

went out there of their own accord, but I think that is unlikely. I

would just like to know, emphatically, were they right or

were they wrong to go out there? Wrong, very simply. You all agree?

Yes. We have some of our young brothers

listening to a message, a message which involves going against, a

message which results in killing other Muslims, which results in

unfair representation of Islam in the media, a message which results

in your family and my family when they go out having to be worried

about themselves. Moderate Muslims are trying to get across the message

that it is only the minority of Muslims who want to fight. There is

a shortage of scholars and people who can connect well enough with

young people. Young people feel disconnected, their content to their

parents and the Internet has a big responsibility. We need to focus on

the middle part. What did happen? No doubt they came into contact with

views that a spouse going abroad to fight against effectively, other

Muslims. This is not an overnight process. I refused to believe they

watched one or two videos and packed their bags and said, I am going to

lead my mother and father. According to the UK Government, the terrorism

risk to Wells is significant. There is a strategy aimed at tackling

radicalisation in communities, but some believe it is failing. Prevent

is not working. Especially not in Wales. We need to interrupt people

once they are spouse support for violence or are actually going to

carry out violence. That has been done on the whole pretty well. The

bigger part of prevent is when youngsters are indoctrinated, they

have the resilience to push back. That is not being done. The Welsh

government is being urged to look again at how it is countering

radicalisation. The issue is we cannot wait for people to be

radicalised and then come back. If that happens as a community and the

society, we have failed. We need to put effective interventions in now

said that the police don't have to worry about that situation arising.

That is what we need to focus on. To keep us safe is to stop people being

radicalised in the first place and not relying on the police managing

that situation after the event. No minister from the Welsh government

was prepared to be interviewed for our programme, but they issued a

statement saying they work closely with the Home Office. South Wales

Police also refused to be interviewed. Despite a succession of

terrorism related offences in Cardiff over a number of years,

neither they nor the Police Commissioner except they are losing

the fight against radicalisation. In my view, the way in which officers

engaged in anti-extremism activities and counterterrorism have worked

particularly well with local policing and with the local

communities. Cardiff is not a hotbed of radicalisation. It is the view

nationally that we don't have a disproportionate issue in Cardiff

compared to other communities. And yet the fact is three young men have

run off to fight and we are told by several different groups that

radicalisation is a problem in Cardiff. There has been too much

complacency and the issue really needs to be addressed in a more

imaginative way. The reason Cardiff has a relatively settled community

is because they have been good work between the police, local policing

and local communities to combat any threat of extremism. But the Home

Office did identify Cardiff as a priority area to combat

radicalisation in 2012, and it does receive extra funding. The two young

Cardiff men in the jihadists video continue to give an account online

of their fight for ISIS. This week, Reeyad Khan has been celebrating

ISIS's declaration of an Islamist state in Syria and Iraq. He has also

posted a photograph of a kitten they rescued. Aseel Muthana posted a

better graft that seems to show he is on the Syrian border. Another

picture shows a seven-year-old boy posing with an anti-aircraft gun.

His comments, so cute. His brother Nasser says he is fighting in

central Syria. He says ISIS is being bombed by government forces. Just

yesterday he tweeted a picture of a martial arts weapon found on an

enemy. He said they would make sure his head was detachable. Two years

ago we made the problem highlighting the fact of radicalisation, but the

problem persists. Just today, an 18-year-old in Cardiff was arrested

on suspicion of a terrorist offence. Lyc?e it might be linked to the

three who went to Syria. The programme made 18 months ago exposed

publicly what was going on in Cardiff, but no one took notice. If

Cardiff does not wake up now, when will it? What more can be done to

tackle the problem in Cardiff? Greater awareness amongst parents.

Greater awareness among scholars and community leaders. Greater

communication between younger people and perhaps a greater control over

the Internet. If Reeyad is listening to this, what would you say to him?

I would say you are taking the wrong direction. There is still time, come

back home, come back to your parents. There is little hope. I

hope they don't come back in the Coffin, I hope they come back alive.