this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Should have thought about it before she left. She knew what she was doing. As did plenty of others that went. She's had a shit time off it yes, but it's all her own doing. She's alive and obviously getting support from somewhere. Unlike a lot of others that went. They're dead.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago

I'm all for appropriately punishing people for the crimes they commit. But we usually don't deprive solo-nationality citizens of their citizenship (leaving them stateless) for the crimes she is accused of - this is a punishment that is only being applied to UK (including UK-only) nationals who have recent foreign ancestors (i.e. so who could hypothetically - but often not in practice - be eligible for another country's citizenship - in her case, Bangladesh). We also don't usually apply extreme punishments like this to people for crimes committed as children, and we don't usually punish children who were groomed and sex trafficked by terrorists as if they were the perpetrators.

The reality is that if Shamima Begum was a blonde-haired blue-eyed white girl whose parents and grandparents were all from Surrey, the media would have described her as a victim of sex trafficking; and the law that permits this punishment to be applied to her could not even have been used.

The legal system should not treat UK citizens differently according to whether or not the Tories think they look a bit foreign.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

She was a 15 year old girl, groomed online and trafficked to Syria, by someone known to and potentially aided by, Canadian intelligence services. She was forced into a marriage (again she was 15 so could not give consent to this) and had 3 children (all of whom died as infants).

Yes she's done some awful things during her time with IS, but given her age at the time and the difference between her and, for example, "the beatles" group who were conducting beheadings, is huge.

She should be returned to the UK, face criminal justice for her crimes, sentenced accordingly and serve that sentence as what she is, a British citizen.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If she was white she would have been home years ago and they'd have serialised her daring feminist struggle to free herself from Islamist brainwashing.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Yup, Sam Elhassani was home ages ago and she went as a grown adult and there's more evidence in the public domain that she was active in the group.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Are people allowed to make mistakes? Are some mistakes beyond forgiveness? Should someone pay for their mistakes forever?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes, some mistakes are beyond forgiveness. Becoming part of a terrorist organization is one such "mistake". Especially because she is now a threat to the nation's security. Cause you know, terrorists.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This includes Americans then lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Yes, nationality is unimportant when talking about people who join terrorist organizations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I dunno ask all the family members of all the people ISIS murdered and enslaved, if the people they love who are gone and destroyed, will get another chance

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

We can ask the same question to the victims of the IDF but plenty of Brits are over there now participating in a genocide. The difference is they're not brown.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It's still highlighting hypocrisy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

She was a kid!