A former jihadi bride who was expelled from Britain and had her citizenship revoked has claimed she wants to help UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson fight Islamic terrorism.
In an interview broadcasted on GB News, high-profile ISIS runaway Shamima Begum insisted that she possesses the tools required to prevent Brits from being radicalized by Islamist propaganda, and claims to want to help the government that has banished her from returning to Britain.
Speaking from the al-Roj prison camp in northern Syria where she now resides, Begum told journalist Andrew Drury that she would be willing to share her story with the British government, adding: “I actually think it’s important that they know so they can prevent it in future for other people.
“The fight against terrorism is not a one man job, it’s multiple people with multiple skills.”
When asked if she had the tools to prevent children from being radicalized, she claimed: “I do.”
Begum’s case has drawn much attention in Britain over the past few years with the country divided over whether or not it was right for the UK Home Office to revoke her British citizenship and refuse to repatriate her to face terrorism charges in the UK.
Born and raised in East London, Begum along with two other school girls, left Britain in 2015 at the age of 15 and fled to Syria to join the Islamic State. She married a Dutch convert just days after arriving at the Islamic caliphate and subsequently had three children, all of whom have since died.
Following the fall of Islamic State, Begum pleaded with the British government to allow her to return home, commencing upon a charm offensive in which she ditched her traditional Islamic clothing for Western fashion, donning jeans and a baseball cap in interviews with Western broadcasters.
She claimed she was not a terrorist. “I was just a dumb kid who made one mistake,” she told news outlets upon her arrival at a Syrian refugee camp in 2019. Despite her best efforts, then-UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid rejected her application to return to Britain and subsequently revoke her British citizenship.
The decision by the Home Office was upheld in a UK Supreme Court ruling in February of last year with Lord Reed, the court’s president ruling that: “The right of a fair hearing does not trump all other considerations, such as safety of public.”
Begum has insisted she could be of service to the government in its fight against Islamist radicalization before, previously telling reporters: “I think I could very much help you in your fight against terrorism… because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing.”
The government has remained cautious of Begum’s true intentions due to a number of concerning remarks she has made historically, including offering the view that the Islamist suicide bomber attack at Manchester Arena in 2017 which killed 22 people and injured 1,017, some of them children, was justifiable retaliation for Western airstrikes in Syria.
Other European countries have opted for a different approach in dealing with nationals who fled to join ISIS. The trial of Leonara Messing, a German national who joined the Islamic death cult at the same age as Begum, began on Tuesday in Germany as she faces charges of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
