YOUNG British Muslims seen in a jihadi recruitment video were radicalised by the internet, the mosque in Wales where one of them worshipped said yesterday.
Reyaad Khan and Nasser Muthana in a film plea for more British jihadis[WALES NEWS SERVICE]They are seen urging other British Muslims to join them fighting in Syria and Iraq.
It emerged yesterday that as many as 500 Britons have already joined up and 300 have returned to Britain.
Rayeed, please come back home. I’m dying for you. You’re my only son. Please come back. It’s not good what you’re doing. Your family cannot eat or sleep. You need to come back for me, for your family
Intelligence sources warned that tracking the militants once back in Britain was “impossible”.
Muthana’s father yesterday claimed they had been “brainwashed” while Khan’s tearful mother pleaded with him to come home.
It has also emerged that Muthana and Khan both attended St David’s Catholic Sixth Form College, Cardiff, and travelled to Syria together with two others.
Later, Muthana’s brother Aseel, 17, had tried to join them there.
Barak Albayaty, a trustee at the Al Manar Centre in Cardiff, said Muthana had been “just like any other guy…but I am sure coming here is not the source of radicalism”.
He said: “We’re against going to Syria for the armed struggle and have spelt this out.
“It is worrying. We have to do something collective about the media and how these youths are getting affected by the internet.
“It’s not just Cardiff, it’s all over the UK. I’m told the numbers could be in the hundreds.”
Khan’s mother, who has not been named, said yesterday: “Rayeed, please come back home. I’m dying for you. You’re my only son. Please come back. It’s not good what you’re doing. Your family cannot eat or sleep. You need to come back for me, for your family.”
She added: “He is honest, always caring for his family, he always wanted to be there for them. He was one of the best boys a mother could ever want.
“I don’t know who but there is someone behind them keeping these young, innocent boys, brainwashing them into thinking they are going to help people.
“Please come back before it’s too late. I love you so much, why don’t you understand?”
Addressing Islamic militants in ISIS, she said: “Please send him back to me before I die. He’s going to regret this for the rest of his life.”
Khan’s mother spoke out a day after Ahmed Muthana, 57, the father of Nasser and Aseel said they had been “brainwashed” and that “Islamic radicals” paid for them to travel to Syria.
Two other men from Cardiff, who travelled to Syria were arrested on their return in March and April. The men, aged 19 and 23, were released without charge.
Police have made 65 Syria-related arrests over the past 18 months.
Yesterday the Met’s Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who is also head of specialist operations said: “I’m afraid I believe that we will be living with the consequences of Syria – from a terrorist point of view…for many, many, many years to come.”
But ex-MI6 officer Richard Barrett said intelligence services could not track militants here.
He said: “If you imagine what it would cost to really look at 300 people in depth, clearly it would be completely impossible.”
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