Post
by PsychoSerenity » Sat Mar 09, 2019 10:09 pm
What our Home Secretary has done is pretty horrendous and, I believe, against international law.
The young woman is British. Born here, raised here, groomed and radicalised while she was a child in this country, - so keeping her out is doing nothing to solve the original problem or protect others from it. She was a victim. Like any other citizen, the British government have a responsibility towards her. Whatever she's done since (and it's not clear whether she's actually committed any crimes) should be dealt with by due process.
It also seems a dangerous precedent to set, making people stateless because they're seen as problematic. If every country did that we'd just be filling refugee camps with people we don't like. I can't see how that's likely to lead to positive outcomes; most likely it fuels more terrorism.
I also don't see that there's much efficacy in the "punishment/deterrent to others" argument. People who have been radicalised to such extreme actions as travelling around the world to a war zone to join a religious utopia, are not going to be concerned at that point that they might lose their British citizenship. It might even be seen as validation of their beliefs.
But what I think is most horrendous is that this was done for political reasons. Other people have travelled to Syria, regretted it, and returned. But because this particular person had been prominently discussed in the media, Sajid Javid decides to make an example, to show that he's tough. There are so many better ways this could have been handled. She should have been allowed back, and if it could be shown she had committed any crimes, tried for them in court. She could have been committed to therapy and de-radicalisation. Her baby could have been taken care of by the family, or fostered, but either way given medical treatment rather than being left to die in a refugee camp. But all of this should be under the remit of the judicial system, not at the whim of a politician wanting to be seen as a candidate for Prime Minister.
The fact that so many people in this country seem comfortable sneering at the death of an innocent baby in order to keep othering the radicalised religious mother is far more frighting to me than the actual threat of religious terrorists. This is how fascism starts.
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]
