<p>"I was clueless," Helena Benaouda said in an interview with daily Dagens Nyheter (DN), speaking publicly for the first time since the arrest last month of son-in-law Munir Awad.<br />Awad, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, is currently detained -- along with three other men, including two Swedish citizens -- on suspicion of planning a December attack on the Jyllands-Posten daily which had published caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.<br /><br />He had been twice detained abroad suspected of terror links -- once in Somalia in 2007 and in Pakistan in 2009 -- both times with his wife, Benaouda's daughter Safia.<br />Benaouda, who previously said she had never come across any Muslim extremists, said it was possible her daughter did not know of the plot.<br /><br />But she added she should have been suspicious about her son-in-law's plans.<br /><br />"Safia says 'I don't get it and I don't know what he is up to'. And I should have known myself. How is it possible to hide such things to those close to you?," she told the paper.<br /><br />Awad had also shared a Stockholm-area flat with one of two Swedes of Somali origin who were sent to jail in December for "planning terrorist crimes" in Somalia.<br /><br />When Awad's former flatmate was arrested in June, Benaouda told her son-in-law "that he shouldn't mix with people who get arrested. But I didn't say more, because I don't have such a close relationship to him", she told DN.<br /><br />Benaouda said she had received threats and not publicly spoken about her son-in-law's arrest to take the time to deal with the family crisis.<br /><br />She condemned all forms of extremism in Islam, including Sweden's first suicide attack, carried out in December by an Iraqi-born Swede who killed only himself after sending a message saying he was acting in the name of Islam.<br /><br />"There are no holy wars in Islam," Benaouda said.<br /><br />"For me, the Stockholm suicide bomber is a criminal. I distance myself from all Islamic extremism. The use of violence is always unacceptable."</p>
<p>"I was clueless," Helena Benaouda said in an interview with daily Dagens Nyheter (DN), speaking publicly for the first time since the arrest last month of son-in-law Munir Awad.<br />Awad, a 29-year-old Swede born in Lebanon, is currently detained -- along with three other men, including two Swedish citizens -- on suspicion of planning a December attack on the Jyllands-Posten daily which had published caricatures of the prophet Mohammed.<br /><br />He had been twice detained abroad suspected of terror links -- once in Somalia in 2007 and in Pakistan in 2009 -- both times with his wife, Benaouda's daughter Safia.<br />Benaouda, who previously said she had never come across any Muslim extremists, said it was possible her daughter did not know of the plot.<br /><br />But she added she should have been suspicious about her son-in-law's plans.<br /><br />"Safia says 'I don't get it and I don't know what he is up to'. And I should have known myself. How is it possible to hide such things to those close to you?," she told the paper.<br /><br />Awad had also shared a Stockholm-area flat with one of two Swedes of Somali origin who were sent to jail in December for "planning terrorist crimes" in Somalia.<br /><br />When Awad's former flatmate was arrested in June, Benaouda told her son-in-law "that he shouldn't mix with people who get arrested. But I didn't say more, because I don't have such a close relationship to him", she told DN.<br /><br />Benaouda said she had received threats and not publicly spoken about her son-in-law's arrest to take the time to deal with the family crisis.<br /><br />She condemned all forms of extremism in Islam, including Sweden's first suicide attack, carried out in December by an Iraqi-born Swede who killed only himself after sending a message saying he was acting in the name of Islam.<br /><br />"There are no holy wars in Islam," Benaouda said.<br /><br />"For me, the Stockholm suicide bomber is a criminal. I distance myself from all Islamic extremism. The use of violence is always unacceptable."</p>