GOOD Morning Britain sparked a flood of complaints to Ofcom over a recent interview with ISIS bride Shamima Begum.
The ITV breakfast show has been hit with 273 complaints to the telly watchdog after airing the exclusive interview with the ex-ISIS member.
Hundreds of furious viewers slammed GMB after the 22-year-old appeared on the show on September 15th to “ask for forgiveness” in her first live TV broadcast.
People also piled in on Twitter, with one writing: “#GMB sick idea for breakfast show having #ShamimaBegum on, no respect for the dead and wounded let her rot.”
Another said: “I feel @richardm56 is doing well in this interview @GMB Totally wrong to allow her airtime, I think I can see it in his face ! Please don’t feel sorry for her @susannareid100 I can’t watch anymore it’s making me feel angry.”
And one more raged: “Shamima Begum should not be on tv here in the UK & she shouldn’t ever be in our country here again! She made her bed, she can lay in it!”
During the segment the former British citizen spoke from a refugee camp in Syria and suggested a country should not banish someone for a mistake they made when they were 15.
Presenters Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley also quizzed Shamima on her new look, as she ditched her hijab and wore lipstick, a grey vest top and baseball cap.
The young mum – whose three children have died – said she was “manipulated and groomed” by ISIS jihadis.
Wearing a strappy top, with painted nails and her hair down, Shamima suggested she was too young to fully understand what she was doing when she left the UK and said she was easily impressionable.
“I think yes, I was groomed and taken advantage of and manipulated into coming,” she told GMB.
And she said that at the time she did not know Isis “was a death cult”.
She added: “I thought it was an Islamic community that I was joining.
“I was being fed a lot of information on the internet by people in Isis telling me I need to come because I can’t be a good Muslim in the UK.”
When asked what she was expecting to happen when she left Britain, Shamima said she thought she would “just get married, have children and live a pure Islamic life”.
She told Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid: “I knew there was war but not in places women and children were living.
“I thought it would be safe for me. I did not know Isis wanted to take over the world.”
She said: “I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims, because I know I did nothing in IS but be a mother and a wife.
“These claims are being made to make me look worse because the Government do not have anything on me.
“There is no evidence because nothing ever happened.”
Asking for forgiveness, she added: “I know it’s very hard for the British people to try and forgive me because they have lived in fear of IS and lost loved ones because of IS, but I also have lived in fear of IS and I also lost loved ones because of IS, so I can sympathise with them in that way.
“I know it is very hard for them to forgive me but I say from the bottom of my heart that I am so sorry if I ever offended anyone by coming here, if I ever offended anyone by the things I said.”
Absolutely the right decision to protect the British people
Sajid Javid
In a direct plea to the Prime Minister, Shamima went on to say Boris Johnson was “clearly struggling” in the UK’s fight against terror.
Suggesting she could help stop UK jihadis from being groomed online, she said: “I want to help with that and telling you my own experience on how they [ISIS] persuade people to do what they do.
“I think I could very much help you in your fight against terrorism because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing.”
She added: “I will explain to the government how these people work and how they persuade people and how they take advantage.”
In July 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order to fairly contest this decision by instructing lawyers properly.
This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom which in February ruled unanimously against her, thus reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who as home secretary took the decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship, said “it was absolutely the right decision to protect the British people”.
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