Small Wars Journal

ISIS Cases Raise a Question: What Does It Mean to Be Stateless?

Fri, 02/22/2019 - 7:18pm

ISIS Cases Raise a Question: What Does It Mean to Be Stateless? By Megan Specia – New York Times

… The dilemma of what to do with citizens of Western countries who threw in their lot with the Islamic State before it was largely ousted from Syria has set off a debate over citizenship and the statelessness that might result from stripping some of them of their nationality…

 

The United States looked poised to follow suit when on Wednesday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement saying that Hoda Muthana, a young American-born woman who left college in Alabama to join the Islamic State, “is not a U.S. citizen.” Ms. Muthana, he said, could not return home.

 

However appealing it may appear to governments that want to send a powerful message to those who turn against their own countries, legal experts warn of long-term problems if the stranded Islamic State members end up stateless…

Read on.