Ali, 60, told the Daily Mail that he has “no problem” with the government’s decision, noting that it's ok with him if the government doesn’t want to take her back.
“I know she is stuck there [in Syria] but that’s because she has done actions that made her get stuck like this", he said, adding “I can’t say whether it is right or wrong, but if the law of the land says that it is correct to cancel her citizenship, then I agree".
Ali, a retired tailor, came to Britain in 1975 and married Begum’s mother, Asma, seven years later. They settled in Bethnal Green, East London, and had four daughters, but from the mid-1990s he began dividing his time between Britain and Bangladesh, where he married a second wife.
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He last saw his youngest daughter two months before she fled to Syria with schoolmates Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase in March 2015, according to the Daily Mail.
“If she at least admitted she made a mistake then I would feel sorry for her and other people would feel sorry for her. But she does not accept her wrong", Ali said, opposing the stance taken by her other British relatives who had previously spoken out in support of her.
He noted that Begum had shown no sign of being radicalised and that she wasn’t very religious at all, adding that “she never used to pray regularly, she was not that Islamic-minded".
Earlier on Friday, Begum’s lawyer said in an interview that he plans to challenge the Home Secretary’s decision to have her citizenship revoked "as soon as possible", telling Sky News that the Begum family is "quite eager" to bring Shamima's newborn baby back from Syria to the UK.
*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.
