How Shamima Begum became radicalised

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Shamima Begum will not be allowed to challenge the removal of her British citizenship.

This is a landmark decision. It potentially brings an end to Begum’s five-year-long legal fight against then home secretary Sajid Javid’s 2019 decision to revoke her citizenship on national-security grounds, after she left Britain to join ISIS in 2015. Begum’s legal team has said it could petition the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to hear her case, but she is fast running out of options.

The arguments over the rights and wrongs of Begum’s case are likely to continue long past the conclusion of her legal battle, however. Some believe that the decision to bar her from entering the UK on national-security grounds is reasonable given her involvement with ISIS. Others claim that it is deeply unfair. They cite the fact that she was just 15 when she joined up with ISIS, and claim she should be treated as ‘a victim of radicalisation’.

By characterising Begum as such, her defenders still hope to win wider public support for her cause. Begum herself has even been playing up to her role as a ‘victim of radicalisation’ over the past few years, claiming in various interviews that she was ‘brainwashed’ as a teenager in the UK. It seems she sees this as a way to absolve herself of all responsibility for joining ISIS.

She clearly does bear responsibility for her decision to side with this cruel, terroristic movement. However, it is important to take the claim of Begum’s radicalisation seriously. Not to exonerate her, but to understand the factors that could drive other young British Muslims towards extremist ideology – indeed, to understand how a teenage Brit could end up pledging allegiance to a vile Islamist group that pursues the genocide of ‘infidels’ and the sexual enslavement of their women and children.

One principal source of radicalisation lies in the places – particular mosques, seminaries and Islamic charities – where radical Islamic beliefs are taught and legitimised. These push vulnerable young people down an extremist path under the guise of religious education. For example, the Manchester Arena bomber, Salman Abedi, attended Didsbury Mosque in Manchester. In 2022, John Cooper KC, representing some of the bereaved families, told the Manchester Arena inquiry that the mosque had ‘failed to confront extremism in the run-up’ to the 2017 bombing. He said the centre had ‘turned a blind eye’ to extremist and violent views amongst parts of its congregation and ignored the dangers of radicalisation.

Other Islamic charities, mosques and seminaries have also been reported to the authorities for promoting anti-Semitism and radical views under the guise of ‘religious advancement’. Last month, the Charity Commission announced that it is to investigate four Islamic charities after allegations that they had hosted Ibtisam Elahi Zaheer, a Pakistani cleric notorious for his extremist views on blasphemy, infidels, apostates and homosexuals. He also propagates vile anti-woman views on a regular basis, including ‘condoning sexual slavery’.

This is not the first time extremist Muslim clerics have visited British mosques and sought to influence young people, and it won’t be the last. Sadly, it remains a normal state of affairs in certain mosques.

One of the largest obstacles to combating extremism in religious institutions has been the political correctness of the British political class. They have been more worried about offending the sensibilities of religious leaders than they have been about the radicalisation threat posed to British Muslim youth. Begum, the so-called jihadi bride, is a mere symptom of a problem that the British authorities have allowed to take root through their negligence and fear.

This can’t go on. Religious extremism passed off as education is the first step many young people take towards radicalisation. Countering this ideology is likely to be more effective at nipping youthful extremism in the bud than any number of so-called deradicalisation programmes.

Shamima Begum may be a lost cause, but the task of tackling Islamist radicalisation remains as vital as ever. We need to tackle the threat posed by this nihilistic ideology so that other young people do not suffer Begum’s fate.

Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator, originally from Pakistan and now based in the UK.