BBC sparks outrage for ‘providing terrorists with a platform’ as Shamima Begum releases 10-part podcast

The BBC was criticized today for “giving terrorists a platform” after Shamima Begum received a 10-part podcast to trace her journey.

The 23-year-old is once heard saying, “I’m just so much more than ISIS,” and describes packing her bags with mint chocolate before traveling to Syria to join the brutal death cult.

Critics accused the BBC of “wasting feepayers’ money” and said the families of ISIS victims were “humiliated”. Meanwhile, commentator Wasiq Wasiq tweeted: “While grooming gang victims still seek to be heard and seek justice, Shamima Begum manages to land a 10-part podcast on the BBC.”

The BBC said the podcast would give Ms Begum’s “full account” of “what really happened” when she disappeared from London to become a jihadi bride in 2015. But it insisted they wouldn’t allow her to tell her story “unchallenged,” describing the podcast as a “robust investigation of public interest.”

The BBC has released a 10-part podcast about Shamima Begum, in which she tells her story of joining ISIS

In 2015, then 15-year-old Begum (centre) and her school friends Kadiza Sultana (left), 15, and Amira Abase (right), 16, fled their homes in east London to join IS. Her two companions are said to have died there

In 2015, Begum, then 15, and her school friends Kadiza Sultana, 15, and Amira Abase, 16, fled their east London homes to join IS.

Begum, now 23, was found in a refugee camp in 2019 and shortly after the UK stripped her of her citizenship and banned her from entering the UK.

She now resides in al-Roj camp in northern Syria, run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which she described on the podcast as “worse than a prison.”

The BBC Sounds podcast follows an investigative journalist who has been speaking with Begum for a year and gives “her full account of what really happened after she disappeared”.

In the first episode, journalist Josh Baker meets Begum in the Syrian detention center to find out how she joined ISIS and ended up stranded.

She told him about being in a camp: “It’s worse than prison in my opinion, I think because at least with prison sentences you know there’s going to be an end, but here you don’t know if there’s going to be one End.’

Begum accepts that she has joined a terrorist group, but says on the subject of public anger directed at her, “I don’t think it’s actually against me. I think it’s about Isis.

“When you think of Isis, you think of me because I’ve been brought into the media so many times, but what should you obsess over?

‘We went to see Isis, that’s it. It was over, it was over and done with.’

In the podcast, the 23-year-old claims that the Syrian refugee camp she is in is “worse than prison”.

Critics accused the BBC of “wasting feepayers’ money” and said the families of ISIS victims were “humiliated”. Shown are some of the critical tweets

Begum also describes her trip to Syria and how she received detailed instructions from IS members.

But she also researched information herself and searched for IS members online to help her and her friends plan their trip.

The podcast reveals how Begum and her friends hid their luggage in advance and how they planned scenarios where they would be quizzed or caught:

“There were people online who would tell us and happily advise us what to do and what not to do,” she says.

“Just like getting the money to buy the tickets, where to buy the tickets, which airport to go to, what to bring, what to wear, when to go to the airport, who to talk to, who not to talk to You know what excuse you’ll have if you get caught.’

When asked how she decided which items to take, Begum says, “I mean, it’s the same as when you go on vacation, you just are [thinking] What do I need for a vacation, it’s pretty simple things.’

“I don’t know, people used to say that you should pack nice clothes so you can dress nice for your husband.”

She says she also packed things she knew she wouldn’t find in Syria, including mint chocolate: “I’m not going to lie, I took sweets. I just like store bought sweets which I knew I wouldn’t find in Syria. Mint Aero, mint chocolate, how much. You can find a lot of things in this country, but no mint chocolate. It’s a tragedy. Tragedy.’

Asked how she felt about possibly never returning to the UK, she says: “I just wasn’t thinking at the time, my head was like completely blank, but I think, yeah, I thought, this is this last time i go to see uk. I mean, in a way, I felt kind of relieved.

The BBC said the podcast was not an opportunity for Begum to tell her story unchallenged, but rather a “robust inquiry into the public interest”.

Begum also says, “I’ve always been a more private person. That’s why it’s so hard how my life has turned out in the media, because I’m not a person who draws a lot of attention.’

“My family thought I was too weak to do something crazy like that, so they figured I wouldn’t be able to do that in a million years because of my personality.”

Josh Baker says, “There are different ways to tell the story of Shamima Begum. There’s the one about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was nursed by ISIS and lured to a war zone and now needs to be rescued from a Syrian detention center.

“And there’s the one about a traitor who fled the UK to join ISIS and has become known around the world as a terrorist and needs to be prevented from returning to the UK.

“As Shamima contests the UK government’s withdrawal of her British citizenship, I have reviewed her accounts to provide listeners with a definitive account of this complex, nuanced and shocking story.”

The series says it aims to “separate fact from fiction” while attempting to answer the question, “Who is Shamima Begum?”

Other topics explored include how she got to Syria and what she did once she got there.

The channel also explains that the podcast isn’t an opportunity for Begum to tell her story unchallenged, but a “robust investigation of public interest.”

• Episode 1 of I’m Not A Monster: The Shamima Begum Story is available to listen today on BBC Sounds. New episodes are available and will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 11am.