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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Sophie McCoid

Shamima Begum begs UK public for forgiveness in Good Morning Britain interview

Shamima Begum said she would rather die than join Isis again as she apologised for her previous comments and said she wanted to help the government in their fight against terrorism.

Shamima left home in 2015 and was smuggled into Syria to become an Isis bride.

In 2019 she was found in a refugee camp and gave a series of incendiary interviews, where she said that the Manchester bombing attack was justified, leaving the British public sickened.

In 2020 the Home Office revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds.

READ MORE: Mum spots unwelcome change to her house as it appears on TV show

Today she appeared on Good Morning Britain alongside Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid to apologise for her actions and to plead with the government to allow her to return to the UK.

Shamima said she wasn't a terrorist and when she joined Isis she thought she was "doing the right thing as a Muslim."

She said she was groomed online and manipulated into going to Syria and thought she would just get married, have children and "live a pure Islamic life".

Shamima said she was asking the British people to forgive her and said: "I am asking them to forgive me, I made a mistake at a very young age, people can fall very easily into something like this.

"I have lost loved ones because of Isis and lived in fear, I know its hard for the public to forgive me, I'm so sorry if I offended people by saying those things."

Shamima said she didn't know what was going on in the outside world as she had no phone or access to the internet and when she made comments about the Manchester Arena bombing being justified she didn't know what she was saying and was afraid of other women in the camps when she was being interviewed.

Shamima Begum on Good Morning Britain (ITV)

Shamima denied being directly involved in terrorist activity and said that she never sewed suicide bomber's vests or was part of the morality police.

She admitted that if Isis was still in power she may have still been with them but "not by choice but because of force".

She said: "If Isis came to the gates now and said 'join us or die' then I would rather die than go back to Isis."

Shamima said she was willing to help the government in their fight against terror and made a direct appeal to Boris Johnson.

She said: "I want to say that you are clearly struggling with terrorism, I want to help with that by giving my own experience with these extremists and why they come to places like Syria, I think I could help you in your fight against terrorism, because you obviously don't know what you're doing.

"I will explain how they work and how they persuade people to do things and I would identify the social problems the government need to focus on to fight people becoming radicalised online."

In her last answer during the interview Shamima said: "No one can hate me more than I hate myself."

*GMB continues at 6am on ITV tomorrow

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