Excerpt:
It’s something no mother would ever want to experience. The unexpected appearance of state security officers on your doorstep, to inform you that your daughter was planning to leave for Syria to allegedly join the terrorist militia “Islamic State.”
But that is exactly what happened to Monika Müller. She recalls every detail of that particular day in 2014 when she was told about her daughter Sophia. Her shock was followed by relief: The police had been acting on false rumors the officers had seemingly picked up in a mosque. But how did Sophia and her family get to this point? Müller was willing to share her daughter’s journey with Deutsche Welle, but only on the condition that her family’s anonymity be protected. Not everything they have been through can be published here.