| ...mother of five, wife of three jihadis — sequentially, they kept getting killed, first the sniper, then the Bangladeshi drone expert, then the failed defender of Raqqa—teacher, home schooler, fluent in Arabic, Turkish, and Spanish... |
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
battalion of women.
The 42-year-old American woman is now facing up to 40 years in prison.
According to the US department of justice, Fluke-Ekren, a United States citizen, "organised and led an all-female military battalion on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)".
She has also been charged with "providing and conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization."
A criminal complaint filed against her showed that she went by multiple alias names such as "Allison Elizabeth Brooks",
| ...her maiden name... |
| ...her |
Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, a school teacher who grew up on a farm in Kansas, made a brief appearance in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday facing terrorism charges.
Fluke-Ekren, who was dressed in a black headscarf and a green T-shirt reading "Alexandria Inmate," was ordered to be held in detention until trial.
The trajectory of the midwestern woman who was born Allison Brooks and came to be known by the nom de guerre Umm Mohammed al-Amriki has been outlined in court documents, her personal blog and newspaper articles.
Brooks grew up in Topeka, Kansas, and was remembered by one of her former teachers as a bright student who was "good at everything."
"Never would any of us who knew her back then ever thought she would end up as she has today," Larry Miller, a retired science teacher, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. "That's not the person I knew when I knew her."
Miller served as the wedding photographer for Brooks' marriage in a Methodist church to a local man named Fluke.
First we’ve heard of him. All the rest have to move up a number.
They had two children who are now adults and who have told prosecutors they do not want any contact with their mother.Can’t blame them. The woman chose evil.
Brooks went on to marry a man named Volkan Ekren with whom she had at least three more children.Now known as Fluke-Ekren, she studied at the University of Kansas and then earned a master's degree in teaching from a college in Indiana.
In a 2004 article in the Lawrence Journal-World, Fluke-Ekren is shown wearing a headscarf while home-schooling her two eldest children. Their studies included learning Arabic from a tutor three days a week.
Fluke-Ekren and her husband moved to Egypt in 2008. Her personal blog still available online shows pictures of the family celebrating birthdays, taking a cruise on the Nile and visiting the Pyramids.
The family moved to Libya in 2011 and lived there for a year, according to the criminal complaint against her.
A former friend identified only as Farouk told ABC News she believed Fluke-Ekren became radicalized while living in the Middle East.
"She was very sympathetic toward the Islamic states, and how they were doing the right thing and how we needed to, you know, support the women and children," Farouk said. "She really felt people were being harmed by a larger force."
She was wearing a hijab in the 2004 article — she went abroad because she had already put her feet on that path. The question is whether she left the Fluke kids behind or if they escaped later.
Related:
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-02-01 Family of Kansas woman who allegedly joined ISIS wants nothing to do with her
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-01-30 FBI Nabs Kansas Woman Accused of Leading ‘All-Female' ISIS Battalion in Syria
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-01-30 American Woman Accused of Prominent Role in Islamic State
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-02-01 Family of Kansas woman who allegedly joined ISIS wants nothing to do with her
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-01-30 FBI Nabs Kansas Woman Accused of Leading ‘All-Female' ISIS Battalion in Syria
Allison Fluke-Ekren: 2022-01-30 American Woman Accused of Prominent Role in Islamic State
