Democracy

Stripping Citizenship: A Former ISIS Bride and Child are Unlikely Canaries in the Coal Mine

Stripping Citizenship:  A Former ISIS Bride and Child are Unlikely Canaries in the Coal Mine

Hoda Muthana, a woman who willingly became an ISIS bride, is not likely to inspire much sympathy in the US. The State Department asserted that Hoda was not a citizen, despite that she was born in the United States and that the State Department had previously recognized her as a citizen. As non-citizens, neither Hoda nor her son Adam had the right to return to the US; they remain in a Syrian detention camp with other former ISIS brides and their children. Few American citizens will shed tears over an ISIS bride losing her citizenship. However, it should disturb all of us how easily – and how quickly – it happened.