'We want to come home': the remorseful Britons who don't want to be jihadis anymore
Anthea says "You went out there to kill now stay out there and DIE."
BRITISH jihadis have contacted a London university to say they regret their decision to travel to the Middle East to join Islamic fundamentalists, an expert has said.
Professor Peter Neumann of King's College reportedly said they have been in contact with a number of British fighters who want to come back to the UK but feel they cannot owing to fear they will be jailed.
He said the Government should set up a "deradicalisation programme" for those willing former-jihadis, echoing calls by Labour leader Ed Miliband who last month.
Mr Miliband suggested a mandatory programme for those involved on the fringes with Islamic State (IS).
Professor Neumann, who works at the university's International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, said: "The people we have been talking to ... want to quit but feel trapped because all the Government is talking about is locking them up for 30 years."
One jihadist, claiming to represent 30 others who feel the same, contacted university researchers in the past fortnight to say there is a feeling of disillusionment.
Some of the fighters, it was claimed, travelled to fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and are instead being forced to get involved in in-fighting among rebel groups.
Reports today suggest that at least a fifth of Britons fighting in Iraq and Syria want to come home as they are disillusioned with IS.
He told the researchers: "It's not what we came for but if we go back (to Britain) we will go to jail. Right now, we are being forced to fight - what option do we have?"
Professor Neumann said he believed as many as a fifth of British fighters could be trying to find a way out of their current situation.
He said if the correct approach was taken towards less-hardened jihadists who wanted to come back, they could become important figures to show potential fighters that the reality of battle may not match the image presented by IS propaganda.
Meanwhile, the Government has said it will not be deterred from launching air strikes against IS terrorists by threats to the life of a British hostage they are holding.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the Government could not be deflected from taking action against an organisation "almost pathological" in its behaviour and which posed a direct threat to the UK.
Militants from IS - also referred to as Isil or Isis - have threatened the Briton who they are believed to be holding in Syria.
They have already beheaded two American journalists, posting the evidence on line in gruesome videos featuring a masked jihadist with a British accent.
"We will do everything we can to protect this individual but we have to be clear about the nature of the organisation that we are dealing with," Mr Hammond said.
"They are utterly brutal, they are ideologically driven - almost pathological in the way that they behave. We cannot allow our strategy to be driven by their behaviour.
"We have to approach the challenge of Isil with focus purely on what is in Britain's best interests - protecting our citizens and our security from the threat that Isil poses from foreign fighters, from potential attacks on our soil, destabilisation of the region.
"We will not be diverted from doing what is right by the threats from this organisation."
David Cameron has signalled that Britain could join in airstrikes against IS in northern Iraq - where they have taken large swathes of territory.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/507284 ... is-anymore
