The White Widow's 'Jihadi children': Secret diary of fugitive Briton reveals she is raising family to murder 'Islam's enemies'
- Samantha Lewthwaite is on the run from police and is linked to terrorism
- The widow of a 7/7 bomber allegedly took part in the Westgate mall attacks
- Officers found a diary and photos at a safe house in Mombasa, Kenya
- She describes plans to raise her three children to be terrorists as well
By REBECCA EVANS PUBLISHED: 21:08 GMT, 4 October 2013 | UPDATED: 21:08 GMT, 4 October 2013
Written by the world’s most wanted woman, it is a chilling manifesto for terrorism. ‘White widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite spells out over nine scrawled pages her need to murder disbelievers and incites others – including her children – to do the same. The crumpled A4 manuscript was found in a Kenyan safe house in which she and fellow Islamic extremists were planning an attack on two hotels and a shopping centre.
Chilling: The secret diary, right, of 'white widow' Samantha Lewhtwaite, left, was discovered by police in Kenya. It reveals her pride and affection for her 7/7 bomber husband as well as her views on the necessity of violence against non-Muslims
Terrorists of the future?: Lewthwaite wrote that she is preparing her children, pictured, for a life of terror
Police also discovered spent AK-47 cartridges and photographs of the 29-year-old’s four children.The document shows she is grooming them to follow in the footsteps of their father, 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay. Lewthwaite is accused of being behind a foiled terror plot against Western tourist targets in Kenya in Christmas 2011 and a grenade assault on a bar in the Indian Ocean resort of Mombasa last year.
The Muslim convert is also linked to the Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi in which at least 67 people were killed last month. Days after the atrocity, Interpol issued an arrest warrant describing her as ‘dangerous’ and seeking her over the earlier Mombasa case. Her two younger children, five-year-old Abdur-Rahman and Surajah, three, are thought to be the product of a relationship with London-born terrorist Habib Saleh Ghani.
Safe house: Police found the diary, along with ammunition and smashed computers, at this property in Mombasa, Kenya
Hideaway: Lewthwaite is believed to have lived her while writing her diary
A member of Al Shabaab – a Somali offshoot of Al Qaeda, the 28-year-old is thought to have been killed earlier this month in a gunfight with a rival group. Lewthwaite’s accomplice in Mombasa is alleged to have been Jermaine Grant, 29, from Newham, east London, who is standing trial in the port accused of planning to cause the loss of life and possessing bomb-making materials. Although Lewthwaite was arrested with him she managed to escape.
Her children by Lindsay, nine-year-old Abdullah and Ruqayyah, eight, have the middle names Shaheed and Shahidah, male and female forms of the word martyr. Lewthwaite was pregnant with Ruqayyah when Lindsay blew himself up. She is thought to be in hiding in Tanzania or Somalia and an Al Shabaab spokesman says she was involved in the Nairobi atrocity. In her document, the soldier’s daughter from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire says how ‘blessed’ she was to have had a holy warrior husband and of how she sacrificed her comfortable, Western life to fight against non-Muslims.
The manuscript was recovered when Kenyan police discovered the makeshift bomb factory belonging to members of Al Shabaab. Lewthwaite planned to write as many as six chapters, each containing her answers to questions including: ‘Explain in detail what it means to be a stranger amongst your own family, friends’ and ‘How is the reality of leaving your mothers, wives and children behind?’ It is not known if she finished the book, which is analysed here.
MY LOVE FOR JULY 7 BOMBER HUSBAND
After Lindsay killed 26 people in London, his young, seemingly shy and pregnant wife described his crimes as ‘abhorrent’. Lewthwaite, who was forced to go into hiding, said: ‘I totally condemn and am horrified by the atrocities.'I never predicted or imagined that he was involved in such horrific activities. He was a loving husband and father.’ But writing in her notebook, the fugitive ‘white widow’ tells of her love for the man who ‘gave his all to Allah’ and how ‘blessed’ she is to have been the wife of a terrorist.
Lewthwaite, who converted to Islam as a teenager, writes: ‘We praise Allah and thank him for his countless blessings upon us. ‘Allah blessed me with the best husband for me. In fact, exactly what I asked for ... before marriage. ‘I asked for a man that would go forth, give all he could for Allah and live a life of terrorising the disbelievers as they have us. ‘This is what I wanted and Allah gave me this and better.’
Lewthwaite married Jamaican-born Lindsay, known by his Muslim name Jamal, in an Islamic ceremony when he was 17 years old in 2002. She writes of how young her husband was when the pair married.
She explains that he warned her that, by marrying him, she would be giving up her ‘comfortable lifestyle in the West’ but she adds: ‘I agreed. I mean of course, this path is all I ever wanted.’ In the manuscript, Lewthwaite says how important it is for the wife of ‘mujahid’ (Islamic holy warrior) to support her man.
She talks of how upsetting it is when a man believed to be her second husband was away fighting in the war against non-Muslims – how it left her unable to eat or sleep. She wrote: ‘My husband has left me on many occasions to go out for Allah’s cause. The pain of missing your husband and wishing to be in his presence is a test in itself. ‘Then there are times you don’t receive the news on him for several weeks. The not knowing if he is alive ... is enough to lose appetite and sleep.
‘Can I sleep when bombs are dropping on his head? But when he is home, I sleep safely, eat well.’ She goes on to say: ‘My husband taught me earlier in marriage: look at those less fortunate than themselves. ‘No matter what our situation is there is always another Muslimah in a worse situation.’
I’M GROOMING MY CHILDREN FOR TERROR
In the manuscript – found alongside a crumpled photograph of what appears to be three of her children – she reveals she is grooming them to follow in the footsteps of her dead 7/7 suicide bomber husband.She wrote: ‘Recently my beloved husband gave a talk to my eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.
‘He asked them what do you want to be when you are older? Both had many answers but both agreed to one of wanting to be a mujahid. He asked them how did they plan to achieve such a goal, and what really is a mujahid? ‘What makes someone a mujahid? His point to the kids, which I believe to be as relevant to many adults ... was that it is not enough to say I want to be a mujahid yet live your live as [one].’ Since she escaped arrest over the Mombasa plot her children have been on the run with her.
It is thought she has married a former Kenyan naval officer called Abdi Wahid. In her manuscript, Lewthwaite explains how her husband grilled the children on how they hoped to achieve the goal of waging war against non-Muslims and what it will take to follow this path. She adds: ‘It was my husband’s talk to the kids and then reading the Women’s Role in Jihad that made it clear it was time to put pen to paper and share with others what I was blessed with.’ On one page, she even suggests that stories of jihad could be a suitable bedtime read for the children.
WHY I WROTE A TERROR MANUAL
Lewthwaite explains that her reason for putting pen to paper was to ‘incite’ others to fight against non-believers.She writes: ‘I have for many years now wanted to write something that would benefit my brothers and sisters, a message of hope and encouragement and light in an era when many are still in darkness.'After reading the Women’s Role in Jihad, I realised that time had come for me to at least put forth what I have been blessed with and hope that this will incite others.’
She says: ‘Allah has blessed me with being married to a mujahid’ – a reference to 7/7 suicide bomber Lindsay. In addition to being a rallying call to take up arms against non-Muslims, she says she also wants to share the ‘reality of what it means to be a mujahid’ and that she hopes to achieve this through interviews and by sharing her own experiences. She says: ‘The stories in this book are most compiled from interviews that took place directly with the mujahids however occasionally and, where relevant, stories that were narrated to me have been added.
Although the rambling manuscript is incomplete, Lewthwaite names all of the future chapters she planned to write including ‘guidance to jihad’ and ‘life as a stranger’. She also lists her interview questions, such as: ‘Explain in detail what it means to be a stranger amongst your own family, friends’, ‘Why do you believe jihad is the way forward’ and ‘How is the reality of leaving your mothers, wives and children behind?’
Lewthwaite also planned to write a chapter on ‘a woman’s perspective – advice and stories from the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the muhadeen’. She ends with the statement ‘I want to be a muhaid – if sincere to this claim, then know what a mujahid is and live like this.’
HOW TO TERRORISE THE 'DISBELIEVERS'
Samantha Lewthwaite’s sinister manuscript lays bare her belief that all non-Muslims should be ‘terrorised’. She quotes extracts from the Koran justifying her deluded philosophy that murder and bloodshed are the only true path for all Muslims in life. She writes: 'Allah will replace them with a people who love him and he loves’ adding: ‘We ask that Allah accepts the blood of all those who die.'Lewthwaite talks of her contempt for Muslims who do not want to fight but live peacefully and try to bring about change via democratic means. She says she prayed for a husband would go forth and 'give all he could for Allah and live a life of terrorising the disbelievers as they have us'.
Written by the world’s most wanted woman, it is a chilling manifesto for terrorism. ‘White widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite spells out over nine scrawled pages her need to murder disbelievers and incites others – including her children – to do the same. The crumpled A4 manuscript was found in a Kenyan safe house in which she and fellow Islamic extremists were planning an attack on two hotels and a shopping centre.
Chilling: The secret diary, right, of 'white widow' Samantha Lewhtwaite, left, was discovered by police in Kenya. It reveals her pride and affection for her 7/7 bomber husband as well as her views on the necessity of violence against non-Muslims
Terrorists of the future?: Lewthwaite wrote that she is preparing her children, pictured, for a life of terror
Police also discovered spent AK-47 cartridges and photographs of the 29-year-old’s four children.The document shows she is grooming them to follow in the footsteps of their father, 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay. Lewthwaite is accused of being behind a foiled terror plot against Western tourist targets in Kenya in Christmas 2011 and a grenade assault on a bar in the Indian Ocean resort of Mombasa last year.
The Muslim convert is also linked to the Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi in which at least 67 people were killed last month. Days after the atrocity, Interpol issued an arrest warrant describing her as ‘dangerous’ and seeking her over the earlier Mombasa case. Her two younger children, five-year-old Abdur-Rahman and Surajah, three, are thought to be the product of a relationship with London-born terrorist Habib Saleh Ghani.
Safe house: Police found the diary, along with ammunition and smashed computers, at this property in Mombasa, Kenya
Hideaway: Lewthwaite is believed to have lived her while writing her diary
A member of Al Shabaab – a Somali offshoot of Al Qaeda, the 28-year-old is thought to have been killed earlier this month in a gunfight with a rival group. Lewthwaite’s accomplice in Mombasa is alleged to have been Jermaine Grant, 29, from Newham, east London, who is standing trial in the port accused of planning to cause the loss of life and possessing bomb-making materials. Although Lewthwaite was arrested with him she managed to escape.
Her children by Lindsay, nine-year-old Abdullah and Ruqayyah, eight, have the middle names Shaheed and Shahidah, male and female forms of the word martyr. Lewthwaite was pregnant with Ruqayyah when Lindsay blew himself up. She is thought to be in hiding in Tanzania or Somalia and an Al Shabaab spokesman says she was involved in the Nairobi atrocity. In her document, the soldier’s daughter from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire says how ‘blessed’ she was to have had a holy warrior husband and of how she sacrificed her comfortable, Western life to fight against non-Muslims.
The manuscript was recovered when Kenyan police discovered the makeshift bomb factory belonging to members of Al Shabaab. Lewthwaite planned to write as many as six chapters, each containing her answers to questions including: ‘Explain in detail what it means to be a stranger amongst your own family, friends’ and ‘How is the reality of leaving your mothers, wives and children behind?’ It is not known if she finished the book, which is analysed here.
MY LOVE FOR JULY 7 BOMBER HUSBAND
After Lindsay killed 26 people in London, his young, seemingly shy and pregnant wife described his crimes as ‘abhorrent’. Lewthwaite, who was forced to go into hiding, said: ‘I totally condemn and am horrified by the atrocities.'I never predicted or imagined that he was involved in such horrific activities. He was a loving husband and father.’ But writing in her notebook, the fugitive ‘white widow’ tells of her love for the man who ‘gave his all to Allah’ and how ‘blessed’ she is to have been the wife of a terrorist.
Lewthwaite, who converted to Islam as a teenager, writes: ‘We praise Allah and thank him for his countless blessings upon us. ‘Allah blessed me with the best husband for me. In fact, exactly what I asked for ... before marriage. ‘I asked for a man that would go forth, give all he could for Allah and live a life of terrorising the disbelievers as they have us. ‘This is what I wanted and Allah gave me this and better.’
Lewthwaite married Jamaican-born Lindsay, known by his Muslim name Jamal, in an Islamic ceremony when he was 17 years old in 2002. She writes of how young her husband was when the pair married.
She explains that he warned her that, by marrying him, she would be giving up her ‘comfortable lifestyle in the West’ but she adds: ‘I agreed. I mean of course, this path is all I ever wanted.’ In the manuscript, Lewthwaite says how important it is for the wife of ‘mujahid’ (Islamic holy warrior) to support her man.
She talks of how upsetting it is when a man believed to be her second husband was away fighting in the war against non-Muslims – how it left her unable to eat or sleep. She wrote: ‘My husband has left me on many occasions to go out for Allah’s cause. The pain of missing your husband and wishing to be in his presence is a test in itself. ‘Then there are times you don’t receive the news on him for several weeks. The not knowing if he is alive ... is enough to lose appetite and sleep.
‘Can I sleep when bombs are dropping on his head? But when he is home, I sleep safely, eat well.’ She goes on to say: ‘My husband taught me earlier in marriage: look at those less fortunate than themselves. ‘No matter what our situation is there is always another Muslimah in a worse situation.’
I’M GROOMING MY CHILDREN FOR TERROR
In the manuscript – found alongside a crumpled photograph of what appears to be three of her children – she reveals she is grooming them to follow in the footsteps of her dead 7/7 suicide bomber husband.She wrote: ‘Recently my beloved husband gave a talk to my eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter.
‘He asked them what do you want to be when you are older? Both had many answers but both agreed to one of wanting to be a mujahid. He asked them how did they plan to achieve such a goal, and what really is a mujahid? ‘What makes someone a mujahid? His point to the kids, which I believe to be as relevant to many adults ... was that it is not enough to say I want to be a mujahid yet live your live as [one].’ Since she escaped arrest over the Mombasa plot her children have been on the run with her.
It is thought she has married a former Kenyan naval officer called Abdi Wahid. In her manuscript, Lewthwaite explains how her husband grilled the children on how they hoped to achieve the goal of waging war against non-Muslims and what it will take to follow this path. She adds: ‘It was my husband’s talk to the kids and then reading the Women’s Role in Jihad that made it clear it was time to put pen to paper and share with others what I was blessed with.’ On one page, she even suggests that stories of jihad could be a suitable bedtime read for the children.
WHY I WROTE A TERROR MANUAL
Lewthwaite explains that her reason for putting pen to paper was to ‘incite’ others to fight against non-believers.She writes: ‘I have for many years now wanted to write something that would benefit my brothers and sisters, a message of hope and encouragement and light in an era when many are still in darkness.'After reading the Women’s Role in Jihad, I realised that time had come for me to at least put forth what I have been blessed with and hope that this will incite others.’
She says: ‘Allah has blessed me with being married to a mujahid’ – a reference to 7/7 suicide bomber Lindsay. In addition to being a rallying call to take up arms against non-Muslims, she says she also wants to share the ‘reality of what it means to be a mujahid’ and that she hopes to achieve this through interviews and by sharing her own experiences. She says: ‘The stories in this book are most compiled from interviews that took place directly with the mujahids however occasionally and, where relevant, stories that were narrated to me have been added.
Although the rambling manuscript is incomplete, Lewthwaite names all of the future chapters she planned to write including ‘guidance to jihad’ and ‘life as a stranger’. She also lists her interview questions, such as: ‘Explain in detail what it means to be a stranger amongst your own family, friends’, ‘Why do you believe jihad is the way forward’ and ‘How is the reality of leaving your mothers, wives and children behind?’
Lewthwaite also planned to write a chapter on ‘a woman’s perspective – advice and stories from the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the muhadeen’. She ends with the statement ‘I want to be a muhaid – if sincere to this claim, then know what a mujahid is and live like this.’
HOW TO TERRORISE THE 'DISBELIEVERS'
Samantha Lewthwaite’s sinister manuscript lays bare her belief that all non-Muslims should be ‘terrorised’. She quotes extracts from the Koran justifying her deluded philosophy that murder and bloodshed are the only true path for all Muslims in life. She writes: 'Allah will replace them with a people who love him and he loves’ adding: ‘We ask that Allah accepts the blood of all those who die.'Lewthwaite talks of her contempt for Muslims who do not want to fight but live peacefully and try to bring about change via democratic means. She says she prayed for a husband would go forth and 'give all he could for Allah and live a life of terrorising the disbelievers as they have us'.
