NO SHAME
Shamima Begum interview: ISIS bride says she had ‘a good time’ in Syria and insists horrific beheadings were justifiable
BRITISH ISIS bride Shamima Begum says she had “a good time” in Syria – and insists horrific beheadings are "okay as Islamically, that is allowed”.
The teen jihadi also told Sky News that while she had no regrets about living with the terror group, she had to leave as the caliphate was under attack and her "situation got difficult".
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interviewed the 19-year-old “hours” after she gave birth to her third child, a boy, in a Syrian refugee camp, as she repeated her contentious wish to return to the UK.
Asked about conditions while living amidst fellow jihadis, after running away from Britain with two schoolmates to Syria in early 2015, she said “it was nice” at first.
Begum initially found life among the terrorists was “like how they showed it in the [propaganda] videos, like, ‘come, make a family together’.”
But, life got tougher for her, as the teen explained that “things got harder, you know. When we lost Raqqa, we had to keep moving and moving. The situation got difficult.”
This prompted her to have second thoughts about life among the militants, particularly after the death of her son – and she “realised” she had to escape.
Despite the difficulties, she told Sky News that she had no regrets about living among ISIS, as she was “living under Islamic law” and was thus able to “have your own family, do anything”.
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When asked about whether she was fully aware of the brutal way in which the terror group operated, including beheading people, Begum admitted: "Yeah, I knew about those things and I was okay with it.
"Because you know, I started becoming religious just before I left. From what I heard, Islamically that is all allowed, so I was okay with it."
Begum told the correspondent that she didn't question the terrorists' brutal methods "at all".
Asked to talk about her newborn, she said: “It's a boy. I named him after my old son [who died] - that's what my husband wanted."
The ISIS bride has no complaints about living conditions at the refugee camp, describing conditions as “okay” as she “gets fed and I have a heater".
However, Begum admitted that she was finding it “kind of difficult going around doing stuff yourself, especially now I have a child”.
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Also, because of a lack of funds, the teen said it would be a stretch to care for her baby at the camp, explaining, “For people without money, it's hard to get around with the amount of things they give us.”
But, she was finding life easier than when she was living in the last pocket of the Islamic State group’s territory in Baghuz – where US-backed Kurdish forces have been launching an assault on the Syrian side of the Iraqi border.
Begum said that while she’s “not starving”, she does have a roof over her head – “whereas before I was sleeping outside”.
The teen said that “everyone” had been getting sick in Baghuz because of a lack of medical care, adding, “my kids died because of sickness, so, yeah.”
Begum reckons she deserves "sympathy" from Britons after giving birth in a Syria refugee camp - even though she doesn't regret joining the barbaric terror group.
The Brit jihadi has been begging to return home to the UK, insisting, "I was just a housewife."
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Begum also claims she "never did anything dangerous" and whined how "I can't live in this camp forever."
The runaway schoolgirl said she wasn't fazed by seeing severed heads in the bin, claiming it "made her stronger."
She said she had been seduced to run away by ISIS videos online.
And speaking to while sitting next to her newborn son, she said people "should have sympathy towards me for everything I have been through".
The ISIS bride added: "I didn't know what I was getting into when I left.
"I was hoping that maybe for the sake of me and my child they'd let me come back.
"Because I can't live in this camp forever, it's just not possible.
A lot of people should have sympathy
ISIS bride Shamima Begum after giving birth
"When I went to Syria I was just a housewife for the entire four years. I never did anything dangerous. I never made propaganda. I never encouraged people to come to Syria."
The teen said her husband had no idea about her third baby as she doesn't know where he is.
Begum added that she doesn't have a phone or access to the internet, and that the last journalist she spoke to contacted her family for her.
She claimed she'd had a "good time" in the war-zone and apologised to her parents for leaving the UK saying it was "a big slap in the face to them."
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Asked if she felt she made a mistake travelling to Syria, she said: "In a way, yes, but I don't regret it because it's changed me as a person. It's made me stronger, tougher, you know.
"I married my husband, I wouldn't have found someone like him back in the UK.
"I had my kids, I did have a good time there. It's just that then things got harder and I couldn't take it any more and I had to leave."
DESPERATE TO COME HOME
The Brit, 19, fled to Syria when she was 15, with two friends from Bethnal Green high school, East London, and married a Dutch ISIS fighter.
Begum was found by a Times journalist last week in a refugee camp.
The teen, who has called herself "weak" for wanting to return to her home country, had previously given birth to two children who died from malnutrition.
She told The Times she didn't regret joining the murderous cult but is now desperate to return home and have her baby with the support of the NHS.
The Jihadi bride said: "I'm scared this baby is going to get sick in this camp. That's why I really want to get back to Britain. Because I know it will be taken care of, health wise at least."
Her family, who believe she was groomed, pleaded for her to be allowed back to the UK "as a matter of urgency".
Her eldest sister Renu told ITV News she was desperate for her sibling to come home.
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She said: "We hope the British Government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs."
It is understood that should Begum make her way back to Britain, she will face legal proceedings by social services to safeguard her child.
She said she expected to be charged with terrorism offences and to be the subject of intense media attention, but was desperate not to be separated from her baby.
Begum asked: “What do you think will happen to my child? Because I don't want it to be taken away from me, or at least if it is, to be given to my family."
Her family said that if she is jailed for supporting a terror group they want to raise the baby boy.
Muhammad Rahman, 36, whose brother is married to Shamima's elder sister Renu, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Her parents would want custody of the baby. They would want to look after their grandchild.
"I don't think people, feeling the way many do about what Shamima has done, would want the state to pick up the burden of looking after the child.
"Hopefully Shamima can be reunited with her baby after she has been freed from any spell in custody."
FLED TO ISIS IN 2015
Begum left London in February 2015 with two school friends to follow another classmate to Syria.
She said one friend, Kadiza Sultana, had died in an airstrike but the other Bethnal Green girls, Amira Abase and Sharmeena Begum, had stayed with ISIS in Baghuz.
The ISIS bride said she feared she will never see her husband, the Dutch jihadist Yago Riedijk again, whom she still loved “very much”.
Riedijk, 26, a convert to Islam who grew up in a middle-class family home in Arnhem, is suspected by police of being involved in a terrorist plot in the Netherlands. He was convicted in his absence last year of membership of a terrorist group.
Questions have been raised over whether Britain would be able to prevent Begum's eventual return to the UK.
Begum's parents are consulting their lawyer about legal action against the government to force it to allow the teenager back into the country.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has warned he "will not hesitate" to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join ISIS, but Justice Secretary David Gauke told Sky News "we can't make people stateless".
Mr Javid wrote in The Sunday Times that many supporters of ISIS have returned to their home countries, adding: "The difficult challenge we now face is what we should do about those who are still seeking to return.
"As home secretary, my priority is to ensure the safety and security of this country - and I will not let anything jeopardise that."
However the government's tough stance was undermined when Alex Younger, the head of MI6, said British citizens "have a right to come to the UK".
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said anyone linked to terrorist groups "should be fully investigated and where appropriate prosecuted" but added: "We are not in favour of making people stateless."
Chief executive of counter-extremism organisation Quilliam, Haras Rafiq, said he "absolutely" understood the public would be concerned about the prospect of Begum's return, but the "intellectual and right thing to do" was for her to go before the courts.
Kurdish officials have also demanded the UK fulfils its "moral and legal duty" to repatriate Begum and other British ISIS members detained in Syria.
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Deradicalised former Jihadi bride, Tania Joy, believes it’s possible for Shamima Begum to be integrated back into UK society
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