Giving Begum platform will NOT help BBC survive

BETWEEN never-ending strikes, rising energy bills, and the latest episode of tantrums and tiaras, most people have more than enough things to worry about.

- Esther Krakue

It is a wonder then that the BBC, our tone-deaf national broadcaster, feels it necessary to be the PR wing for Shamima Begum’s public rehabilitation.

To say that most Britons are not fond of the jihadi bride would be a gross understatement. Miss Begum, now 23, was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria in 2015 to join the terrorist group Isis.

There she married a jihadi fighter, had three children, and was later stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds in 2019.

Ever since Miss Begum’s case has been the face of a culture war led by people who believe that she has the right to regain her citizenship, which she happily traded to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). Of course, the BBC is well aware of this. Miss Begum has explained how and why she joined Isis in her 10-part BBC podcast series. She even went as far as to describe the al-Roj camp in Northern Syria, where she now lives, as being “worse than a prison”. Unfortunately, my sympathies lie with the innocent people she helped Isis brutally murder.