“A student from Manchester University who has been on Stop the War marches in London and Tony Blair’s Sedgefield constituency has been arrested in northern Iraq amid concerns that he may have been fighting coalition forces in Iraq.” This from The Observer via The Guardian.
“Urslaan Khan, 21, originally from the prosperous Teesside town of Yarm near Middlesbrough, was taking an Arabic Studies degree at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Manchester University. Khan was spending his third year of the course at the University of Alexandria in Egypt where he was learning Arabic.”
Now what would compel a young man from a “prosperous town” leave his university studies to become a soldier? Might Urslaan Khan’s journey parallel that of Abu Zobayer?
His father was incredulous. “Khan’s father said: ‘He used to call us every Saturday or Sunday from Egypt to tell us he was OK and send his love.’ He could not believe his son would have joined a radical Islamic group to fight American troops. ‘Urslaan is a bit of an adventurer, a bit impulsive, and may have travelled out to Iraq to see firsthand what was going on. He was political and strong-minded like most of his family and we had been on anti-war marches together but we are strong believers in democracy.'”