Miss. Newlywed Couple Charged with Attempting to Join Islamic State

Federal authorities are charging two American newlyweds with attempting to join a foreign terrorist organization after they allegedly plotted to join the Islamic State in Syria on the ruse that they were traveling for their honeymoon.

20-year-old Jaelyn Delshaun Young and 22-year-old Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla were arrested in Mississippi over the weekend after federal authorities discovered that they were plotting to join the Islamic State. The young couple was planning to travel to Europe under the guise that they were on their honeymoon. From Europe, they would attempt to enter Syria and join the terrorist group.

The couple were arrested and charged after reportedly communicating their plans to join the Islamic State with an undercover FBI agent posing as an Islamic State sympathizer.

"I am good with computers, education and media," Dakhlalla reportedly told the informant when displaying his skills, asking "What could I contribute?"

"I am skilled in math and chemistry and worked at an analytical lab here on my college campus. My partner is very good with things like computer science/media. We learn very fast and would love to help with giving medical aid," Young added.

According to Reuters, U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander noted that the newlyweds appear to have been raised in a sheltered American environment, suggesting that such an upbringing would cause the young couple to be naïve about the dangers of joining a foreign terrorist group.

"I honestly believe the relative life of privilege has insulated them from the actual reality of what they were doing," she said.