Shamima Begum - Enter The Racists

After the news emerged that the High Court had decided Shamima Begum could return to the UK to contest the decision by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid to strip her of her citizenship - effectively rendering her stateless, which is illegal - our free and fearless press decided that a 20-year-old woman entering the country was tantamount to treason, a terrible thing which had to be resisted at all costs. Out crawled the pundits.

Citizenship, guv? Bit of a long word, innit?!?

And to no surprise at all, chief among today’s crawlers is the Daily Mail’s tedious and unfunny churnalist Richard Littlejohn, who has reverted to his default mode of talking well, but lying badly. He tells readers “There are also unconfirmed rumours that she commanded a women’s vigilante brigade, punishing other jihadi brides who strayed from the path of righteousness. We’ll probably never find out the truth”.

Which may be unconfirmed because they are highly likely to have been misinformation, with the Mail on Sunday and the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph favourite conduits for the spooks. But then Littlejohn, out of the blue, pulls a blatant whopper: “What we do know is that … she … renounced her British citizenship”. Oh did she? This is also claimed in an article for right-wing site UnHerd.

But that is the work of Islamophobic bigot Doug Murray The K, so it’s not really surprising. He puts it this way: “Begum may have personally renounced her British citizenship the moment she went to join the Islamic State”. But here a problem enters. This claim depends on Ms Begum’s act of joining ISIS, ISIL or whatever they’re called right now meaning she automatically renounced her British citizenship. But this is total crap.

The United Kingdom allows dual nationality. Unless someone actually relinquishes their citizenship, becoming a national of another state does not mean they forfeit British citizenship. Also, ISIS was not recognised by most of the world as a state. Dual nationals exist in all walks of UK life. Had he not relinquished his US citizenship recently, alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson would have still been one of them.

On top of that, Ms Begum was just 15 at the time she left the UK. The renouncement of citizenship claim looks shaky at best, and is most probably invention. It does not change the fact of the matter: she was born in the UK and cannot be made stateless. Meanwhile, chez Littlejohn (an immigrant in his chosen land) the racism continues.

“Once jihadi bride Shamima Begum sets foot on British soil again, what do you think the chances are of her ever being deported? Less than zero”. He’s not racist, BUT … brown people, deportation, hear that dog whistle? And she MUST be dangerous. So then it’s “what if she decides to strap on a suicide belt and blow herself up on the Central Line?”

And BENEFITS! “No doubt legal aid will be picking up the bill and, when Begum is safely ensconced back in East London, the mug British taxpayer will continue to lavish her with benefits ad infinitum. The case is scheduled to last well into 2021. Ker-ching!!” Yeah, people who are not white getting things that white people aren’t getting. Allegedly.

This is just dog-whistle racism. One look at the comments sewer for Littlejohn’s article tells you that. He wouldn’t talk about deporting a white person; nor would Murray. And neither of them would invent bogus nationality claims for them. I’ll just leave that one there.

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