As I and many others somewhat expected it would do, the ‘British’ Jihadi Bride Shamima Begum’s sob story about being just a poor, innocent ISIS housewife has started to unravel. In particular it has started to unravel in a way that not only makes Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship look like the correct decision, but has also embarrassed the liberal Left.
According to a report by Breitbart, which heavily draws on a prior report in the Saturday issue of the Daily Telegraph, Shamima Begum was not the innocent that she had claimed in media interviews to be. It has been claimed that far from being just a housewife who stayed in most of the time while here jihadi husband was out fighting, Begum took an active part in ISIS atrocities and oppression. Breitbart and the Telegraph are claiming that Begum was part of a frightening and oppressive ‘morality police’ set up by ISIS and went around armed with an AK47 rifle and earned a reputation as a ‘strict enforcer’ of Islamic rules that guide women’s dress and conduct. Begum is also alleged by the Telegraph to have acted as a recruiter for ISIS to convince other Muslim women outside the ISIS area, including we must presume in the United Kingdom, to join ISIS and find a husband among the jihadi fighters.
On the subject of Begum’s alleged involvement in the ISIS ‘morality police’ Breitbart quoting the Telegraph said:
However, sources described as “well-placed” have now told The Telegraph that Begum was “allowed to carry a Kalashnikov rifle and earned a reputation as a strict ‘enforcer’ of [the Islamic State’s] laws, such as dress codes for women” for the al-Hisba morality police during al-Baghdadi’s reign of terror, and was not the passive housewife she has presented herself as.
“There were lots of young European women in the Hisba,” an activist from the Sound and Picture group, comprised of people who had to live under the Islamic State and kept track of its members’ activities, told the newspaper.
“Some of them were very harsh and the local population became very scared,” the activist said, claiming that members of Sound and Picture in Raqqa, Syria, “knew [Begum] well”, and that he believed she was responsible for ordering the imprisonment and lashing of Syrian women whose behaviour was deemed “non-Islamic”.
If these claims that are being made are correct then they are more than enough evidence to damn Shamima Begum as both an active terrorism supporter and as a bare faced liar. It looks like her involvement in ISIS has been much less peripheral than she has claimed and she was instrumental in sending women who didn’t live according to the ISIS rulebook to their doom. Begum has been particularly pointed out by the reports sources as being particularly noteworthy which suggests that her activities for ISIS were much more serious than she would have us believe.
These latest allegations must, for the sake of justice and national security, be used to prevent Begum ever again returning to the UK. We neither need nor want such monsters here. We have enough Islam-inspired monsters of our own, we do not need any more.
I have to say that the way that the liberal Left has behaved over this case is absolutely disgraceful. In particular I point the finger at Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow Home Secretary Dianne Abbott. Both of these individuals were extremely vocal about how Britain was a ‘country of laws’ and that Begum should be ‘brought home’. That they said this when due to their positions and their possible access to far more information about this case than the general public have got, should elicit anger at these two politicians. They must have known or at least suspected that there was more to this case than was being reported in the media and that it was unlikely in the extreme that a jihadi bride just sat at home and did nothing and was an innocent housewife? Despite this possible extra knowledge about the case Corbyn and Abbott still stood up in public and called for Begum’s return to the United Kingdom. Labour’s policy now seems to be that if you want a terrorist or a terrorist supporter for a neighbour then vote Labour.
Those who have called for Begum to be brought to Britain, not just Corbyn and Abbott but from across the political spectrum have, if these revelations are proven to be correct have behaved extremely stupidly. Former Conservative Party Home Secretary Kenneth Clark said that this ‘obviously British’ jihadi should be brought back to the UK. His sentiments were echoed by another Conservative MP George Freeman who said that Begum was ‘our responsibility’. A leader writer for the Observer newspaper also opined that Begum was a ‘vulnerable young woman who was groomed’ to join ISIS, thereby telling the world that Begum’s own decisions were not her fault.
None of those who have defended Begum or called for her return to the UK have covered themselves in glory over this episode. They have all shown that when the chips are down both the liberal Left and elements in the Conservative Party will side with those, like Begum who not only want us dead but who have oppressed others in their quest for the ‘perfect’ Islamic state. We have a situation where we have high profile politicians defending individuals who are little more than scum and it is a situation that we should do our best to rectify when the General Election comes around. We need to be led by people who will defend us and not those who want us dead. Corbyn, Abbott, Freeman and Clark are a stain on our political system who will gladly turn out and clap like performing seals for the benefit of a terrorist supporter but stay woefully silent when such terrorists kill, maim or oppress.
Nor was this affair JRM’s finest moment, either on Question Time (but fair play to him for defending us on the Boer War camps) or LBC.
(wrt LBC link, I also disagree with his opinion that ‘you can’t have two tiers of citizenship: those who got it more recently or whose parents got it, and those of us who’ve lived quietly in Somerset for centuries, our families before us’. You can and should; these are our islands—and some of us can trace our ancestry to before the Romans came; others to the Saxons; others to the Normans or Huguenots. Our ancestry is our island story; and we can justifiably differentiate between those whose ancestors contributed to that story over centuries—over millennia—and arrivistes. We can accept some newer arrivals as comrades, but his statement is uncomfortably close to SJWish ‘Neu-Deutscher’/‘New Scots’ nonsense; and the American ‘Niihau incident’ demonstrates loyalties to ancestral lands can last to at least the 2nd generation. Naturalised citizens convicted of a serious crime could and should be stripped of British citizenship and deported—a reasonable proposition.)
Brendan O’Neil in spiked (“Shamima Begum is something worse than a criminal,” 18 Feb 2019) had the notion of retrieving Begum and ilk to face charges of treason (or ‘traitorism’ as he calls it for some reason). But this is naïve in the current climate—a treason trial would be a virtue-signalling frenzy with endless marches, and pols and celebs queuing to display their tears to the media; and she would only end up with an easy ‘martyrdom’ in our cushy prisons (no death penalty for treason). We would not have hanged her even in the ‘good old days’—didn’t hang self-styled ‘Countess’ Markievicz for her treason in the Easter Uprising (not only did she murder unarmed policemen but ‘gloated’ over her deed (“New blood on Pearse’s hands,” 31 Mar 2002, [Irish] Independent)); “””our””” Parliament even recently saw fit to ‘honour’ the sociopath (here is Parliament’s web page ‘honouring’ the murderess).
The treason of the Conservatives goes back some way, even to Maggie (on whose watch Lee Clegg was prosecuted—and some of us regard the Anglo–Irish Agreement as base treachery). And it continues with an OAP ex-soldier just charged with murder over an incident in 1972. wrt latter, note that on the same day and estate the army killed acknowledged IRA terrorist Seamus Bradley, proving there were ‘bad guys’ on the ground, so one can assume some justified fear and confusion—maximum charge should be manslaughter (no mens rea); but one should cut young soldiers on operations some slack. They investigated in 1972 and concluded no further action was warranted—so what ‘evidence’ has come to light 47 YEARS later? A political prosecution, the Conservatives again prostrating themselves before the IRA (Tories have been running scared of PIRA/INLA since they started topping Westminster politicians).
To provide some context to that 1972 incident:
480 people were killed in NI that year (exc. ordinary criminality).
270 by Irish republican terrorists (127 soldiers, 88 civilians, 38 Irish republican terrorists, 15 policemen (1 of whom Garda), 2 Proddie terrs; >56% of total dead and >18% of civilian).
113 by Protestant terrs (107 civilians, 3 Proddie terrs, 1 Irish republican terrorist, 1 RUC policeman, 1 UDR soldier).
85 by British Security Forces (43 civilians (3 of whom criminals in stolen cars), 33 confirmed Irish republican terrorists, 6 Proddie terrs, 3 friendly fire; <18% of total dead and 9% of civilian).
12 deaths, responsibility for whom is unknown (11 civilians and one UDR soldier).
In addition to which, the RUC recorded 10,631 shooting incidents (inc. all terrs and SF), 1,853 bombs (exploded and defused); along with 4,876 injured (485 police, 578 soldiers, 3,813 civilians).
btw, my disparagement of the Conservatives does not betoken any liking for IRA Corbyn and ilk: it is to the eternal shame of the Labour Party—a party that once boasted the best NI Secretary in Ulster’s history with Roy Mason (1976–79)—that they now harbour so many apologists and supporters of the murderers of working class British men, women and children.