28 February 2023
Earlier this month the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary that revoked Shamima Begum's British citizenship four years ago, was acting lawfully when he did so.
Shamima was 15 years old when she was groomed online by Islamic extremists and travelled with two friends to Syria to join ISIL. She is a British born Muslim, whose parents had come from Bangladesh. Shamima had never visited Bangladesh and never held dual nationality, as confirmed by the Bangladeshi government.
By contrast, Rhianan Judd was a white British girl who was charged in the UK for terror offences. She too was groomed online, but this time by white supremacy extremists in America. Rhianan was charged with six terrorism offences related to the possession of instructions on how to make explosives and weapons. It was alleged that one set of instructions were connected to a planned attack.
If this was true, Rhianan was definitely a risk to the general public here in the UK.
So, we have two teenage girls, both of them children, alleged to have become involved in terrorism after having been groomed online.
That, I guess, is where the similarities end.
In the case of Shamima, she had her British citizenship removed, leaving her stateless.
In the case of Rhianan, she had all charges against her dropped, because the Home Office finally concluded that she was a victim of exploitation.
Why the difference in approach?
Is it simply because Shamima was non-white, and a Muslim, whereas Rhianan was a white girl from Essex?
Certainly the 'extreme right'* voices on social media have been excitedly clapping the refusals to allow Shamima to return to the UK. These same people shout loudly when foreign criminals who were saved from deportation go on to commit further crimes, saying they should have been expelled from the UK. They say we shouldn't have to house these foreign criminals, but that we shouldn't have to accept Shamima (a UK born alleged criminal) backs into our country.
The hypocrisy would be bad enough of we were talking about an adult who had given abroad to commit crimes. The fact that we are talking about a young woman who was groomed as a child, makes it significantly worse.
Rest in Peace Rhianan
No matter how awful the white supremacist views expressed by Rhianan were, it is incredibly sad that she ended her life at such a young age.
It is time to bring Shamima back home.
* Please note that the use of the term 'extreme right' does not in any way mean that all of those who have been supporting the removal of Shamima Begum's British nationality are right wing, Conservative voters. A significant umber of them are historic Labour voters, but the ideology of those that spew xenophobic hate, Islamaphobic rhetoric and those who voted Tory to 'get Brexit done' at the 2019 general election, seems to have been captured by the tag 'extreme right'.
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