One of the three schoolgirls who flew from London in 2015 to join the Islamic State in Syria and become a so-called jihadi bride has re-emerged in a refugee camp, and wants to return to the United Kingdom to give birth.
Shamima Begum, now 19 years old and nine months pregnant with her third child by her Dutch jihadist husband who is now being held by Syrian Free Democratic Forces, was found and interviewed by Britain’s The Times newspaper just two weeks after she left the final territory ISIS holds due to the fighting there.
Despite the fact her two other children had already died in the Islamic State, the teenage extremist said “no I don’t regret” joining the Caliphate, and even appeared to express her regret the Islamic State was collapsing.
Asked by journalist Anthony Loyd whether recent events marked the end of the Caliphate, Begum replied: “Yeah I really do, I don’t have high hopes. It is getting smaller and smaller, and there is so much oppression and corruption going I don’t think they really deserve victory.”
While casually describing seeing a decapitated head in a dustbin — “it didn’t faze me at all” — and even expressing regret at having left the Caliphate at the moment of its final battle, calling that decision a moment of weakness that her fellow female jihadists would be “ashamed of”, Begum insisted she wanted to return to the United Kingdom.
Begum, who left Bethnal Green, London, in 2015, told the newspaper: “I know what everyone at home thinks of me as I have read all that was written about me online… But I just want to come home to have my child. I’ll do anything required just to be able to come home and live quietly with my child.”
Britain’s mainstream media appeared to lend their apparent tacit support to the extremist as the news of her emergence and desire to travel to the United Kingdom broke Wednesday evening, with The Times, Telegraph, Guardian, and others paradoxically describing her flight from the United Kingdom to a warzone to set up a new life as “fleeing Britain”.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the act of fleeing as running away from danger or evil, or hurrying towards a place of safety. The Times led with the pleading headline on both physical and digital formats ‘Bring Me Home’ Thursday morning and published the comments of Begum’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, who said the authorities should treat his clients as “victims”, rather than jihadists.
The Associated Press reports the comments of UK Security Minister Ben Wallace who said Begum’s lack of remorse over her path in life was “worrying” and that the British public would be concerned about someone returning to a country that “they apparently hate” and stressed that “actions have consequences.”
Breitbart London has reported at length on the difficulties arising for European governments over returning jihadists, with hundreds having moved back to countries across the continent. Often battle-hardened and de-sensitised to violence after years in the Caliphate, it has been a challenge for security services to identify and prosecute returning extremists hiding amongst migrants and so-called asylum seekers passing through Europe’s southern borders.
The British government admitted in 2018 that a “significant proportion” of the 400 or more Islamic State jihadists who had then returned to the UK had been deemed “no longer of national security concern”, and were living at large in the country. Collecting evidence on humanitarian crimes committed while in the Islamic State can be near impossible in many cases, making convicting returned extremists difficult.
The number of security-threat individuals the government officially admitted they knew existed was revised significantly upward over the course of 2017 after a series of terror attacks on British soil led to questions being asked over the work of the security services monitoring individuals.
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook
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