Shamima Begum, the British-born woman who traveled to Syria in 2015 in support of Isis, lost her appeal against her citizenship revocation. In 2019, then UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid canceled Begum’s citizenship, thus denying her any opportunity to return to her native England. Of Bangladeshi heritage, Javid claimed she could apply for citizenship in Bangladesh, a nation in which Begum has never set foot.

Begum’s actions, providing positive support for Isis (now branded Islamic State) are certain reprehensible. She chose to become a cog in the Isis killing machine. The Islamist group, responsible for horrifying atrocities against ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria, took out their sectarian hostility against Muslims who rejected their particular brand of theological fanaticism.

There is no ignoring the fact that she approved the actions of the Isis killers during their short lived ‘caliphate’. We would also do well to remember that she was 15 when she migrated, along with her similarly aged friends. She lost her three children while in Syria. There is no denying that she was damaged psychologically while in the service of Isis, though I am reluctant to use childishly ignorant phrases like ‘Isis bride’ when referring to her situation.

The Isis cult was defeated in 2019, and its loyalists fled their statelet in northern Syria. The returning foreign fighters, along with their partners and children, faced a daunting prospect of returning home. Australia, Britain, the US and other nations had to ask the serious questions – do we allow nationals considered traitors back into the country? Begum has become a reviled figure, denounced as a traitor. But let us not forget the network of malevolent actors in which she became enmeshed.

Begum, it was revealed after her citizenship was revoked, was lured into northern Syria by a person working for Canadian intelligence. Certainly, Begum, as an adolescent, was groomed by Isis men and conditioned to fulfil a particular role as an Isis supporter. However, Canadian intelligence was aware of Begum (and her friends), and the Canadian agent facilitated their travel from Britain to Syria via Turkey.

Mohammed al-Rasheed, the intelligence asset in question, smuggled Begum into Syria. He only recently acknowledged his role in assisting and recruiting Begum. Ottawa did not share this information, so we are told, with the UK government prior to the cancellation of Begum’s citizenship. This strains credulity, as Canada and Britain are members of the Five Eyes intelligence community. They routinely exchange information that is important to each other.

In fact, Western intelligence services have longed recruited and used right wing Islamist groups to further the predatory interests of imperialist states.

Al Rasheed, Begum’s recruiter, was transmitting intelligence to the Ottawa authorities as he ran his people-smuggling network from Raqqa, in Syria. This was at a time when Canada, along with the US and Britain, was funnelling arms and training to various Islamist militant organisations in Syria, with the aim of toppling the Ba’athist regime in Damascus.

Begum remains stateless, stuck in a refugee camp in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria. It is one thing to condemn her membership of a cult that engaged in gruesome violence, it is quite another – vindictive and nasty – to revoke her citizenship thus denying her any possibility of rehabilitation. Australia has the resources and capacity to accept and rehabilitate the wives and children of former Isis fighters.

I raised that last point because of a debate that broke out, in Sydney, when the federal government decided to repatriate about 60 persons, forty of whom are children, from the squalid refugee camps in northern Syria. The people involved are the Australian former wives of Isis militiamen, and their children. The plan to relocate them in western Sydney, where there is a large Iraqi Assyrian community, drew heavy criticism from local politicians. Assyrians were targeted for killing by Isis militants.

Outrage is to be expected from Iraqi Assyrians, and other minorities, who were victimised by the Isis war machine. There is an important point to raise here. The Shia community was also specifically targeted by Isis, and thousands of Iraqi and Syrian Shia were slaughtered. Their viewpoint was never heard or considered during the recent debate regarding the repatriation of the women and children of Isis fighters.

Let’s make an observation here; the opposition of the Iraqi Assyrians to the repatriation plan was motivated not by security concerns, but a generalised bigotry against Muslims. If they had reached out to the Shia community, and expressed interfaith and interethnic solidarity with the multinational victims of Isis terrorism, then that would be encouraging. However, the Assyrians based their opposition on the generalised hostility to Islam and Muslims – ‘we don’t want Muslims here’ was their message.

The repatriated families arrived in Sydney, and have begun to rebuild their lives. While their activities as Isis supporters is despicable, we as a community should be mature and strong enough to humanely reintegrate these former Isis cultists into the wider Australian community.

In fact, the behaviour of the Assyrians, in rejecting children, reminded me of the old racist whites, spewing their vitriol, at black children attempting to integrate into schools, back in the 1960s. Both the American whites back then, and Iraqi Assyrians today, disguised their respective prejudices under the banner of security concerns.

To paraphrase Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s words, we can find Shamima Begum irritating and objectionable, but also remember what she has been through.