Returned Islamic State bride of a senior terrorist Tania Georgelas blamed racism for her radicalization in a recent interview with The Atlantic.
“I faced a lot of racism,” she declared, adding: “I was looking for a way to retaliate, and I wanted honor again.” Georgelas, 33, is of British-Bangladeshi descent who began to subscribe to ultra-orthodox Islamic views as a teen.
She explained her views on the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City. “I saw the towers being crashed into and I went to school the next day,” she recalled. “I said to my friend: ‘Oh isn’t it dreadful what happened?’ and she looked at me and said: ‘Is it really?’ At that point I became really jihadi hardcore.”
She described falling into a crowd of orthodox Muslims.
Goregelas eventually made her way to Texas where she married John Georgelas, an American born Muslim convert she conversed with online. The family moved to Syria in 2013 and John quickly became embroiled in the inner workings of the terrorist group.
Today Georgelas is thought to be the “leading writer and producer of English-language propaganda for ISIS’s magazines and radio programs,” the Counter Extremism Project notes.
“Our dreams were to have land of our own, raise a family and train them be assassins or whatever, soldiers, and then eventually go join the jihad,” Tania said of her experience with Georgelas. She lasted only a short time in Syria and came back with her children to the U.S. after falling ill.
She divorced her ex-husband after returning.
Goergelas claims to now attend a Unitarian church with a boyfriend in Texas, but notes of ex-husband: “I don’t think he’ll ever change his way of thinking. I can’t help but love him.”
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