OUR GIRLS WERE BRAINWASHED. IT’S NO BIG DEAL, GET THEM HOME
THE families of two other Bethnal Green Academy schoolgirls who ran away to become Islamic State jihadi brides begged them to ‘come home’ yesterday.
The father of Sharmeena Begum – the first teenager from the East London school to flee to Syria – urged the British government to forgive her.
Sharmeena, who loved watching EastEnders and wanted to be a doctor, vanished in December 2015 at the age of 15.
Two months later she was joined in Raqqa, the self-styled capital of the Islamic State, by her best friends Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum.
Last night, Sharmeena’s father Mohammad Uddin said the girls should be forgiven because they were radicalised and brainwashed.
A local imam disagreed, saying they were ‘a danger to the community’.
But Mr Uddin, a restaurant worker, said: ‘They should all be allowed to come home. When they went to Syria they were not mature and they had been radicalised.
‘If they do the wrong thing and then realise “that was totally wrong” then they should be forgiven.
‘If my daughter could come home and say “forgive me”, I would forgive her, obviously.’
Amira Abase’s father Hussen claimed that his daughter fled to Syria on a humanitarian mission after seeing images of civilians starving on the internet. He urged the UK government to let her and the others back in to the country, insisting: ‘They are no threat to us.’
Mr Abase, 52, a security guard who came to Britain as a refugee from Ethiopia in 1999, said: ‘The girls should be allowed to come back.
‘When they left the country they were teenagers. They [British officials] have to understand that.’
Shamima Begum, the third surviving Bethnal Green schoolgirl, who is pregnant with her third child, was tracked down by The Times to a refugee camp in northern Syria. Her family echoed the words of Mr Uddin and Mr Abase and pleaded with the Government to allow her to return to the UK.
Her sister Renu told ITV News: ‘She’s pregnant and vulnerable, and it’s important we get her out of al-Hawl camp and home as soon as possible.
‘We hope the British government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs. This news has come to us as a shock.’
Tasnime Akunjee, the family’s lawyer, added: ‘The family do not want to comment, they are trying to process it.’
Mr Akunjee said he was not sure if Begum’s family are considering whether they would take custody of her child if it would be removed from her care on her return to the UK.
‘That’s something they would have to work out for themselves,’ he said. ‘My role with the family is trying to bring Shamima back.’
When asked if Shamima could be prosecuted, he said: ‘The question would be, has she committed any offences? It depends on the evidence there is of her activities.
‘These girls were children that were groomed and once someone is out there it is difficult to try to come back... sometimes it can be lethal.’
The family of Sultana, who is believed to have been killed by a Russian airstrike in 2016, did not want to comment.
‘She’s pregnant and vulnerable’