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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
RickiTarr · 19/03/2021 18:29

It seems that Sultana is almost certainly dead, killed by an air strike at 17 while hoping to escape Daesh.

Reports about Abase are conflicting, but I don’t think either of them have been heard from for years.

RickiTarr · 19/03/2021 18:32

Rude! 🤣🤣

Sorry. Honest, though. Reading your frequent posts does feel like being browbeaten.

I’m responding to different people. You don’t have to read my posts

Fair. Although I do have to skim through them to get to something less repetitive. 🤷🏻‍♀️

SmileEachDay · 19/03/2021 18:35

Sorry. Honest, though. Reading your frequent posts does feel like being browbeaten

Fair. Although I do have to skim through them to get to something less repetitive

Thanks for the feedback 😬

There are a lot of people posting that have zero understanding or knowledge of either the case or of radicalisation in general.

It’s something that’s part of my job. I think it’s important to challenge inaccuracies.

Scroll on by.

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 18:37

I’m wrong! One of the girls is on the news right now!

RickiTarr · 19/03/2021 18:41

Which channel?

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 18:43

It was ITV. A segment about camps in Syria and a guy in London sending money to get ISIS members smuggled into the UK.

RickiTarr · 19/03/2021 18:45

Sheesh. Worrying.

Gwynfluff · 19/03/2021 18:48

We’ve let many radicalised young men back in the country and they’ve had to undergo appropriate debriefing. She was 15, 3 of her children died and she wants to eat a meatball sub on her return. I suspect she is very low risk indeed. I can’t work out how she has become a scapegoat other than that she is female.

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 18:54

@Gwynfluff she has not shown any remorse and still supports the regime. How can you say she is low risk? The meatball sub quote plus the western clothing is her way of manipulating people. It’s obviously worked on you. How naive you are.

Theunamedcat · 19/03/2021 18:59

The weston clothing will be for photos there is no way she will be allowed to walk around like that usually

Puffalicious · 19/03/2021 19:06

@AlexaShutUp

The government is harsh towards her because public opinion is harsh. You will no doubt see that in the responses.

I don't have a great opinion of her and I believe that she should be tried for any crimes that she may have committed, but I agree that she was a vulnerable teenager when she was radicalised, and that should have been taken into account.

She was born in Britain, she grew up in Britain, and she was radicalised in Britain. Her nationality should never have been stripped. Whatever people may think about her, she is our problem.

A white teenager would have been treated differently under the circumstances. Whatever else she may or may not have done, the crime that has made the biggest difference in this case is the fact that SB has brown skin.

Just started the thread. This is absolutely nonsense. This is NOT to do with her brown skin, it's to do with her crimes. If she was white it would be exactly the same. I say this as a woman with mixed race family. Not everything is down to colour.
PlanDeRaccordement · 19/03/2021 19:06

@Gwynfluff

We’ve let many radicalised young men back in the country and they’ve had to undergo appropriate debriefing. She was 15, 3 of her children died and she wants to eat a meatball sub on her return. I suspect she is very low risk indeed. I can’t work out how she has become a scapegoat other than that she is female.
Not by choice. I read that several hundred have snuck back into the U.K. and the authorities are tracing them now. Many will be up on terror charges. The ones they know about ahead of time AND have other citizenships, they have stripped their citizenships as well. The Beatles was one group of British men for example.
PlanDeRaccordement · 19/03/2021 19:07

A white teenager would have been treated differently under the circumstances.

Yes, blond, blue-eyed Sally Jones and her child were killed by a drone strike. It’s death to YT.

Alsohuman · 19/03/2021 19:08

@Soontobe60

Not only have we let her down because she was a child who had been radicalised when she left the country, but we have also let her down as a Muslim woman who is a British national. She should be repatriated and dealt with accordingly.
It’s the Yazidi women and children who have been let down.
Gwynfluff · 19/03/2021 19:10

@HermioneMakepeace

She needs the debriefing process offered to others in this situation . I’m not disputing that.

Fawful · 19/03/2021 19:10

Re: "There are many beautiful countries that would accept her and she can live there happily."

Really? She's not even got a citizenship, how would she travel anywhere? We 'don't want her in the UK', but it's not about how we feel, it's about what is fair. No other country presumably 'want her', but the UK spawned her so it gets to deal with her. Did she use to live in the caliphate in Iraq or Syria btw? Do you think either of these countries' taxpayers should pay for the trials of the thousands of westerners who had gone to join Isis? It's clear they shouldn't, and that we should, even if it pains us. She hasn't got a legal right to settle in Syria, has she? Presumably in the refugee camp she is in, not everyone is formerly of ISIS, and they are not prisoners of war or headed for a trial. What to do with the westerners, open the door and let them lose in Syria? How do Syrian citizens deserve to be around her more than we do, given she was radicalised here?

As for the special needs, of course they can go unnoticed until 15 and beyond. Plenty of people get diagnosed with autism in adulthood.

bemorethanenough · 19/03/2021 19:23

It is about what is fair? ...

What is fair is to pay for prosecution in Syria or Iraq and let her face the punishment there (and all the others Brits that lost their passports).

Moelwynbach · 19/03/2021 19:24

@MrsHound it's not a religion of hate though is it? I know plenty of Muslims who do not hold with these views. I am a Christian there is plenty of hateful rhetoric in the Old Testament. Wide up mate, side up.

Fawful · 19/03/2021 19:29

She probably wouldn't be found guilty, whether here or there, and whether she would or not, it can't be right that Syria should have to rehabilitate her...

bemorethanenough · 19/03/2021 19:33

Because, she would not be prosecuted here is the reason that she should never be allowed in.

MrsHound · 19/03/2021 19:35

Yes mate the old testament
Or are you saying Muslims are in the dark ages?
No argument there

HermioneMakepeace · 19/03/2021 19:37

... it can't be right that Syria should have to rehabilitate her.

Yeah well I doubt that would be their plan!

SmileEachDay · 19/03/2021 19:41

Because, she would not be prosecuted here is the reason that she should never be allowed in

Why? Joining a terrorist organisation is a criminal offence in the UK.

Frequency · 19/03/2021 19:54

It really doesn't matter if she is dangerous or what she did or didn't do in Syria.

She was born in the UK, raised in the UK, educated in the UK and radaclised in the UK.

You have to do a phenonomal amount of mental gymnastics to claim the UK does not have a legal, moral and financial obligation to take her back and do what it takes to rehabilitate her or keep others safe from her in the event she is unable to be rehabilitated.

Stratfordplace · 19/03/2021 20:01

I think you would have to do an incredible amount of mental gymnastics to believe the UK or it’s citizens owe SB anything whatsoever. Be that citizenship or anything else. She forfeited all that when she became a terrorist.

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