• Alabama Sen. Doug Jones said Hoda Muthana should be allowed to return to the US from Syria and face the criminal justice system.
• Muthana, 24, left Alabama when she was 19 to join ISIS in Syria, and now wants to return to the US with her 18-month-old son.
• President Donald Trump and Secretary of State vowed last week to keep Muthana out of the US.
• Jones said Muthana should “absolutely be brought to justice for inciting violence against Americans.”

Alabama Sen. Doug Jones said an American woman who went to Syria to join ISIS four years ago should be allowed back into the US to face the criminal justice system.

Hoda Muthana, 24, and her 18-month-old son fled ISIS earlier this year and are living in the al-Hawl refugee camp in northeast Syria. She came forward earlier this month to ask to return to the US.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State vowed last week to keep Muthana out of the United States. Jones, a Democrat, contrasted those statements on Sunday, saying Muthana should be “brought to justice.”

“While I certainly understand the initial reaction to prohibit Hoda Muthana from coming back to the United States, I am concerned that allowing anyone who has committed crimes against the people of this country to remain beyond the reach of our justice system is the wrong approach and sends the wrong message,” Jones said in a statement to AL.com.

“My view is that she should absolutely be brought to justice for inciting violence against Americans,” he added. “Doing so would send a powerful message that any American who lends support to a terrorist organisation will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.”

Read more:
American ISIS bride’s father files lawsuit to have the US recognise her as a citizen and return her to the country immediately

Muthana’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, filed a lawsuit last week arguing that his daughter and her son should be allowed to return to the US and she should be recognised as a citizen.

In the lawsuit, Muthana’s father asked that he be allowed to send his daughter money to return home without being charged for supporting a terrorist.

“While I can’t speak to the facts about Muthana’s citizenship status, as a former US Attorney I have full faith in our justice system to hold her accountable for her actions if she were to return to the United States,” Jones said in his statement to AL.com.

Muthana left Alabama when she was 19 to join ISIS in Syria in November 2014.

She was radicalized online, according to a 2015 BuzzFeed report, and started a popular Twitter account, where she made violent calls to action from Syria.

One tweet read: “Go on drive bys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day … Kill them.”

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