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Original poster

AIBU to ask if we can have a sensible discussion here about Shamima Begum?

520 replies

StephenBelafonte · 18/03/2021 12:39

I just don't understand the hostility towards her by the british government. Surely as a 15 year old she was radicalised and brainwashed.

I genuinely don't understand why the government is so harsh towards her. Unless they know something we don't. I feel so sorry for her.

OP posts:
Penners99 · 19/03/2021 08:43

She is not a citizen of the UK, so why all the discussion?

TheKeatingFive · 19/03/2021 08:43

I don't believe that SB should be allowed to return to this country. She is dangerous, and there is no evidence that she can be effectively rehabilitated

So why is it okay to make her some other country’s problem?

Alsohuman · 19/03/2021 08:46

She’s another country’s problem because that’s where she committed her crimes. Just like Ann Sacoolas is our problem, despite fleeing the country.

EssentialHummus · 19/03/2021 08:46

She is not a citizen of the UK, so why all the discussion?

Because she was until the UK removed her citizenship, and the issue of whether or not that’s the right approach in this/any circumstance is interesting.

TheKeatingFive · 19/03/2021 08:54

She’s another country’s problem because that’s where she committed her crimes.

Where she committed her crimes is in no way equipped to deal with her and the justice she requires.

Alsohuman · 19/03/2021 09:05

Where she committed her crimes is in no way equipped to deal with her and the justice she requires

Tough. She’ll just have to stay where she is then. She can’t be dealt with here because the only crime she seems to have committed here is stealing and travelling on someone else’s passport.

themoneypolice · 19/03/2021 09:07

@StephenBelafonte

I just don't understand the hostility towards her by the british government. Surely as a 15 year old she was radicalised and brainwashed.

I genuinely don't understand why the government is so harsh towards her. Unless they know something we don't. I feel so sorry for her.

Completely agree - if she was white it would have been a different response
mynewernew · 19/03/2021 09:11

@themoneypolice Completely agree - if she was white it would have been a different response

And you know that how?

ClearMountain · 19/03/2021 09:12

The things she has done are beyond redemption. And as an adult she has continued to verbally support terrorist activity eg the Manchester bombings, so her sympathies obviously haven’t changed. I think there’s a general feeling that she’s lying to get back into the UK and she’s actually still a terrorist.

themoneypolice · 19/03/2021 09:27

[quote mynewernew]@themoneypolice Completely agree - if she was white it would have been a different response

And you know that how? [/quote]
@mynewernew

You're joking right!? 🙄
You must be blind if you can't see this country has a HUGE problem with racism and islamophobia

Including the people who run it and the ones who police it....

This government broke international law by stripping her of her citizenship...because they are scared of public opinion, Johnson is a populist.
If she was white public opinion and media coverage would have been ' poor radicalised teenager' and the story would have been very different.

How people are so oblivious to all this is shameful - white people have a lot of work to do.

TheStreamThatStoodStill · 19/03/2021 09:29

So why is it okay to make her some other country’s problem?

Actually, she made herself another country's problem by committing crimes THERE.

I would venture that were I to take part in a murderous rampage in America, for example, there would be little outcry or appetite for me to face UK rather than US justice. Why is she any different?

mynewernew · 19/03/2021 09:34

How this discussion is about racism? I wouldn't care of the colour skin or religion if she did not terrorised and bullied other Muslim women for not being Islamic enough (this was witnessed by others). How their life and well-being is less important than SB?

finallyme2018 · 19/03/2021 09:43

Nope sorry, I don't feel a ounce of sympathy for her, she's where she is because of decisions she made. I own my decisions at 15 where some of them silly an put me in danger sure. But even then I knew and owned my decisions. My sympathy goes to the children who died in Manchester bombing or people killed in London in terror attacks an around the world. She wants to come back here because the NHS is better and life is easier not because she truly feels horror at what she supported. For once the government are absolutely in the right. She should never be allowed back. What a slap in the face it would be to the soldiers left with ptsd after fighting her cause, or families who have lost loved ones for the bomber jackets she's help make. I'm normally against capital punishment. But anyone who supports things like this and then when apparently all her friends are dead, her children have died, she suddenly see the light and knows better an wants to come back to the uk, but admits in a interview that she was proud of their achievements like she did. I won't be opposed it in that instance.

themoneypolice · 19/03/2021 09:51

@mynewernew

How this discussion is about racism? I wouldn't care of the colour skin or religion if she did not terrorised and bullied other Muslim women for not being Islamic enough (this was witnessed by others). How their life and well-being is less important than SB?
You wouldn't care about the colour of her skin if she hadn't bullied other Muslim women...so you care about her race because she has done terrible things?

You have a lot of work to do and a lot of unpacking on how you view POC.

Also you mention her 'religion' and then use the phrase 'other Muslim women' please DO NOT mix up or compare whatever horrendous brainwashing SB believes with the teachings of Islam or Muslims.

Countrygirl2021 · 19/03/2021 10:02

**Teenage mistakes” are things like drinking too much cider and being sick on your parents new sofa

Travelling across continents to join a medieval death cult in their spree of rape murder and torture is not a “teenage mistake”.**

I wholeheartedly agree.

I do worry a bit the way she speaks that she isn't the brightest but she made those decisions knowing what she was doing.

Teenagers that stab /kill other teenagers here we don't say. Oh never mind, he was only 15 l, didn't realise stabbing someone would kill them.

girlywhirly · 19/03/2021 11:31

Her children died apparently of malnutrition and disease. Living in a Syrian camp, I can well believe it. The third baby died of pneumonia at three weeks old. I think she got pregnant again quite quickly after each birth with no recovery time for her body and with limited nutrition and hygiene, and the babies were at a disadvantage before they were even born.

Branleuse · 19/03/2021 11:44

i think its become clear that if you have foreign born parents, then even if you are born british, you are at risk of your citizenship being revoked if you commit certain crimes.
I am actually pretty surprised how passionately some people seem to want her returned to the UK. It really strikes me as virtue signalling. I mean, im not against refugees or asylum seekers, and I have lots of sympathy for the muslims that suffer racism because they are lumped in with supporters of islamic state etc, even when they are moderate themselves or actually escaping from these people.
I cant seem to muster up much sympathy at all for people that run off to join ISIS and once theyve done that, I dont really care what happens to them. There are much more worthy causes

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 11:47

Personally, I don’t believe there WERE any babies. That’s certainly the view of people working in the camp. And if there were, how comes they died of malnutrition and she didn’t? At no point has she looked malnourished. Why would she let her baby starve to death?

PandemicAtTheDisco · 19/03/2021 12:06

I'm fairly sure I remember reading that all three teenagers were spoken about being high achievers at school although I looked a year ago and could no longer find the interview online. Working hard and doing well at school doesn't always equal high intelligence though.

Were all her babies born in the refugee camps? When did she get split up from her husband?

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 12:17

It’s a shame we can’t give her citizenship to a deserving Syrian refugee instead.

Theunamedcat · 19/03/2021 13:24

Apparently we stripped 150 uk citizens of there UK citizenship in 2017 to prevent them returning to the UK none of them got this much airtime why does she

georgarina · 19/03/2021 13:29

She joined ISIS and took an active role in helping suicide bombers on their missions. From the info we've gotten she was very active in her role and in enforcing the rules. Now the regime is crashing down and she wants to come back.

She proved herself to be a threat and if she came back it could easily be a plan to launch a terror attack...or if not her, the next person. Others have had their citizenship revoked ie. Jack Letts and she should be no different.

bemorethanenough · 19/03/2021 15:02

www.warchild.org.uk/yazidi-appeal

Derbee · 19/03/2021 15:31

@Theunamedcat

Apparently we stripped 150 uk citizens of there UK citizenship in 2017 to prevent them returning to the UK none of them got this much airtime why does she
Because she’s blow dried her hair and put on some Western clothes and sunglasses. It’s all sickening
PandemicAtTheDisco · 19/03/2021 15:45

She was a teenager when she left.

She was radicalised.

She may/may not have had three babies that died.

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