{"id":45596,"date":"2019-02-20T15:08:43","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T04:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=45596"},"modified":"2019-02-20T15:08:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T04:08:43","slug":"what-the-uks-islamic-state-bride-case-means-for-australias-foreign-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/what-the-uks-islamic-state-bride-case-means-for-australias-foreign-fighters\/","title":{"rendered":"What the UK\u2019s \u2018Islamic State bride\u2019 case means for Australia\u2019s foreign fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last week, veteran Times<\/em> reporter Anthony Loyd travelled to a Syrian refugee camp to interview <\/a>\u00a0Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old woman from Bethnal Green in London\u2019s East End, who at the age of 15 left home to join Islamic State. Within 10 days of arriving in Raqqa in 2015, she had married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert to Islam.<\/p>\n

Begum, who has just given birth to her third child (her two other children died in infancy), said she wants to return to the UK. After Begum spoke with Loyd, her predicament sparked a national debate as to whether she should be allowed to return home.<\/p>\n

The UK home secretary, Sajid Javid, stated that he wouldn\u2019t hesitate to prevent her return: \u2018My message is clear: if you have supported terrorist organisations abroad I will not hesitate to prevent your return.\u2019, He has now reportedly<\/a> stripped Begum of her British citizenship, which her family said they will challenge in the courts.<\/p>\n

Richard Barrett, the former director of global counterterrorism at MI6, took a different view, arguing<\/a> that Begum should be allowed to return, and that despite the justifiable concern, \u2018governments have a responsibility to address the problems created by their captured nationals and also to look more closely at why they made the choices they did\u2019.<\/p>\n

Barrett says leaving people like Begum to the mercy of Syrian or Iraqi authorities who engage in summary execution is an abrogation of moral responsibility. It would further alienate marginalised communities, and could even become a recruitment tool for Salafi-jihadi who claim that the West is hypocritical when it comes to human rights and upholding international norms. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, also joined the debate, asserting<\/a> that Britain should take back its foreign fighters because it is \u2018our responsibility\u2019.<\/p>\n

There are three key questions to consider in the Begum case:<\/p>\n