Is there a difference in the way Shamima Begum and Daniel Khalife are portrayed in the media?

[LucyAnnTrent]

Does anyone else think that there is a very different tone in the reporting on one disaffected young Muslim terror enthusiast (Shamima Begum) and another disaffected young Muslim terror enthusiast (Daniel Khalife)? Shamima went off to Syria to join Isis at the age of 15 and was/is widely considered to be persona non grata: despite her youth, request for forgiveness and the fact that she has paid a very high price for her decision to join ISIS (all three of her children have now died and her British citizenship has been taken from her), most people do not want her back in the UK.

Daniel Khalife, aged 21, is accused of accessing the personal details of soldiers and gathering information that could be useful for an enemy state (allegedly Iran) planning acts of terrorism. However, although the authorities have certainly taken him very seriously indeed, the media seems to view it almost as a daring prank, and much has been made about him heading for leafy Chiswick and his Waitrose shopping.

I find myself thinking that Daniel seems like a nice boy, and what a shame it is that he's in prison at such a young age. I don't feel this way about Shamima, even though she was several years younger than Daniel when she went to Syria.

Do you think the two of them are viewed differently in the media and by the public? If so, why is this? Are we more shocked by a female terrorist sympathiser, because we expect females to be less murderous or hold them to higher standards? Do we secretly admire Daniel for his audacious escape? Is it because Shamima was usually photographed in her hijab, whereas Daniel looks like the boy next door? What do you think?

I think what they did is wildly different.

I don't think the majority of people are thinking he's a nice boy and isn't it a shame he's in prison. I think that might just be you. And probably his mum.

I don't admire either of them.

Shamima is only sorry ISIS fell and if it hadn't she wouldn't be trying to get home. She's shown no genuine remorse for what she did.

Daniel deserves what he gets too. I don't think it was daring or funny.

Daniel is on remand and not guilty of much yet...except escaping

Now you’ve pointed it out OP I realised I’ve found myself thinking similar. It’s not that I necessarily think any allowances should be made for his age, but I find myself thinking it’s sad he’s so young and tbh I‘m surprised because I know I’m quite biased against soldiers. I felt similar about Shamima but not to the same degree.

This has really made me think. I think it’s perceived class and misogyny on my part. He to me looks more mc and he comes from an area near mine. If she looked like one of the hijabi women I know, very polished and well dressed (not necessarily in a very western fashion) I think she would have probably had much more of my sympathy. Need to work on this.

I find myself thinking that Daniel seems like a nice boy, and what a shame it is that he's in prison at such a young age

This place is just unbelievable at times

Yeah he's a poor wee soul 🙄 ffs

If you look at the thread running on here about Daniel Khalife, OP you'll see that I called him a time-waster and a scrote because that's what he is. I don't care what age he is but I think I said to DH when the news broke and I saw his photo "what a waste of a young life, to be banged up in prison when he has his life ahead of him, what went wrong" kind of thing. Shamima Begum is the same, another tragic waste of a young life.

so from my perspective, as a citizen of the UK, there's nothing to choose between them, they are both misguided, have screwed up their own life chances by their own choice and have at various times wasted police and the authorities' (hence taxpayers') time and need to be put somewhere where they can do no harm to others (Khalife = Bellmarsh high security), end of; Begum = right to be in UK removed for the rest of her life as an ISIS sympathiser who only apologises when it suits her).

I'm sure there are others with the same views as me, and I don't see it contributes to the debate to draw comparisons of how the media has handled both cases based on their sex, their circumstances aren't compatible other than they are both miscreants on the wrong side of the law

I think the difference with Khalife's story is that it lent itself perfectly to slapstick humour - dressed in a chef's outfit, outsmarts the authorities, clings to a truck and ends up near Waitrose. It's a headline writer's dream.

In the melee, many forgot that he could be a very dangerous person with horrendous intentions.

I admit to have been taken in by it too. When I saw he'd been caught I felt a sudden smidge of disappointment (🙄🙄) before I had to remind myself - hang on this man is a suspected TERRORIST!

Just goes to show how the media can subtly manipulate our feelings about a subject. I am very glad and relieved he is back safely in the system!

@howtogetthisright I think you're right - the circumstances of his escape are such that you almost find yourself rooting for him, and have to remind yourself that he's accused of terror offences.

But even having reminded myself of that, I still feel more sympathy for him than I do to Shamina, and I'm not sure why. As you said, @NCforThis3 , I need to work on this!

Shamina Begum was groomed from an early age, is not very bright and has lost 3 children before the age of 21. The way our government has treated her is disgraceful, deciding that someone born and raised in the UK is not a British citizen. They should have allowed her to return and tried her for any crimes, just like they will with Daniel Khalife.

Shamima - and her friends - actually went and did it. I think that explains the different reactions.

You've got to be having a laugh

She knew what she was doing and she's apologised only insincerely when it suits her

I agree with you. I actually have a lot more sympathy for Shamina. The situation is a horrible mess, but it is a horrible mess of the UK’s making. We should bring her home and undo some of the mess. She should face justice for what she has done, with the mitigation that she was a child being groomed. The fact that three of her children have died is hideous, regardless of what she has done.

I honestly think the Daniel Khalife situation is funny, in a very dark but stupid sort of way. The chef’s outfit and the comedy escape. It was a fascinating news story. Some brilliant policing catching him (although it made me smile that they arrested some other tousled haired chef on the station on his way to work thinking it was him).

Well one is confirmed Muslim and brown

The other there is speculation that they are Muslim and while not quite English looking he is reported to have an English mother

so based on that the reporting shall be different

It astonishes me how many people take the "she had 3 children who all died" story at face value. There's no evidence of any of it, at all.

Absolutely agree

why was a 15 years old when she left the country how did this happen?

Shamima Begum has become a political pawn shall be interesting to see and I do hope Starmer shall make changes so she can return once he is PM

What evidence would you accept? There is some evidence to suggest at least one of her children died. Is it easy to give birth and raise children in war torn countries in crisis, do you know?

There's no evidence of any of the children ever having existed.

It's been an extremely effective bit of propaganda, though, to distract from what she was actually doing in the 'war torn country in crisis' to which she had travelled in order to take part in that war and perpetuate that crisis.

There is evidence that she left the country at 15 without an adult or adult supervision

this is so often overlooked

if she were white and middle class there would be an outrage how this could possibly happen (unless with an older male as she would have then enticed him 🙄)

I mean her British citizenship has been revoked (wrongly in my opinion, regardless of her children/fake kids) and she’s widely held in contempt. Appeals have failed. I wouldn’t say it’s been that effective, would you? Perhaps we have a different definition of ‘effective’ though.

I don't think anyone likes either of them! She got more media coverage because she kept giving interviews asking people to feel sorry for her.

Yes they've been treated differently. She's being portrayed as a tragic hapless woman who was a childhood victim of grooming who needs rescuing from Syria and everyone glosses over her job as an ISIS enforcer, and he's being portrayed as some sort of intelligent super spy who we all need to be wary of and who is capable of all sorts (e.g. the assumptions he'd left the country early on).

In reality they're both a bit shit and did something quite silly.

It's worked on lots of people, as this thread demonstrates. Many people have bought her lies outright and repeat them, as they have done here, as fact. She's been given a platform to speak on many media outlets, and highly sympathetic media profiles, over and over again.

Meanwhile,separate intelligence reports show that she served in the Islamic State's "morality police" (like the women who helped to kill Mahsa Amini in Iran), recruited other young women to join the jihadist group, and stitched young suicide bombers into explosive vests.

And that's leaving aside the stuff that's still classified.

But yeah. Terribly unfair. Let's talk about her imaginary dead children, rather than the real children whose deaths she aided and abetted.

This.

This. Prison escapes are always seen as a bit daring and his was quite comedic.

Doesn't mean he's not a fucking terrorist.

I didn't realise there was no evidence of her children's existence. Was she not filmed nursing a baby in her arms? Not sure we saw the baby, though.