Jack Letts: claims I'm 'Jihadi Jack' are shocking and ridiculous

'Naive': Jack Letts in Syria
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Sebastian Mann26 January 2016

A British Muslim convert has dismissed suggestions he travelled to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS), according to reports.

Jack Letts was suspected of being the first white Briton to join the terror group, also known as Isis, after he left his Oxford home and travelled to the war-ravaged country last year.

Reports dubbed Letts "Jihadi Jack" and said he had married an Iraqi woman with whom he has a son, Muhammed, while living in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

But Letts, 20, has made light of the claims in private messages on Facebook, the Independent said.

He said: "Its sort of awkward when the media thinks your Isis and your not. Thinks you have a son and you dont. Thinks your married when your not.

"Maybe they got bored worrying about what colour socks certain celebrities wear and took out the frustration on me?"

And he appeared to accuse the media of an anti-Muslim bias, saying: "The formula with the media is simple: English guy became muslim + went to the middle east + followed islam = Isis + eats babies x evil."

He admitted his Facebook account had been accessed by other "extreme" people, who had obtained his password through someone he said he "stupidly trusted", but he added the details included in the reports were "lies".

His denial follows that made by his mother Sally, who said he was in Syria doing humanitarian work and they were in regular contact.

She told the Evening Standard: "He is not a member of IS, he is very probably not the first white convert that has gone out there. He does not have a son and is not known as Abu Mohammed.

"We spoke to him yesterday and he said he had never had a weapon in his life. He went out there for humanitarian purposes to help kids in Syrian refugee camps."

She added: "All this is absolutely ridiculous, it is shocking."

Letts went to Cherwell School in Oxford, the newspaper reported, and was keen on sports before taking becoming interested in the Middle East in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings and converting to Islam.

He later told his mother and father John Letts, a leading organic farmer and baker, he was planning to go to Kuwait to study Arabic and left the UK last year, but instead went to Syria.

Additional reporting PA

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