Shamima Begum is something worse than a criminal
In this article, Brendan O'Neill compares the hysterical reaction of the elites to the Covington schoolboys with their sympathetic treatment of Shamina Begum. The events happened in different countries - but the elites are interchangeable. The schoolboys, from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, were in Washington, DC, for a pro-life demonstration. In response to verbal abuse from religious extremists of the Black Hebrew Israelites and later to a Native American who banged a drum and chanted at them, the boys sang sporty songs and apparently smiled too much. Oh, and some were wearing MAGA caps.
Shamina Begum travelled thousands of kilometers as a 15-year-old to become an ISIS bride, but now, as a 19-year-old, wanted to go back to Britain. While the Covington boys were denounced as "racists" and "white supremacists," Begum was seen as a victim of brainwashing and grooming. Here in Canada, our prime minister said that returning ISIS fighters could be a "powerful voice" for Canada, while the "United We Roll" convoy from western Canada who converged on Parliament Hill along with yellow vest protesters over concerns ranging from the pipeline to the Global Compact on Migration, were considered xenophobes and haters.
It
is this sort of confused thinking and desire to virtue-signal that led to the
misguided passage of Motion M-103 by Canadian parliamentarians. A lot of
ordinary Canadians would just like to fix what O'Neill call the elites' "broken
moral compass."