Mother of Boy in ISIS Video a Former Christian
The mother of the 4-year-old boy who recently appeared on an ISIS execution video was once a devout Christian, according to her family.
In an interview with The Sun, Sunday Dare, father of 25-year-old Grace, who now goes by the name Khadijah, said: "She was religious. She would read her Bible and pray all the time."
"She went to church every week without fail, often three times. She was always smiling and singing at church, sat in the pews with all the grown-ups."
Khadijah is from southeast London and converted to Islam in 2010. She is believed to have been radicalized online and in 2012 she fled to Syria with her son, Isa.
Once there, she married Abu Bakr, a Swedish ISIS militant who is now believed dead.
Khadijah has said on social media that she wants to be the first British woman to kill an ISIS hostage. Her son was featured in a 10-minute propaganda video released last week, titled "A Message to David Cameron."
The video showed five hostages being killed and Isa saying, "We will kill the kuffars (non-believers) over there."
Khadijah's father says he will not disown his grandson.
"He's propaganda," he said. "They are just using a small boy. They are just using him as a shield."
