Cowardly West too weak to punish its ISIS recruits – so hands dirty work off to Third World justice

Published time: 4 Mar, 2019 18:45Edited time: 4 Mar, 2019 19:40

Get short URL

At their peak - Islamic State fighters in Raqqa in 2014. ©  REUTERS/STRINGER

Igor Ogorodnev

By refusing to repatriate citizens who fought for the failed caliphate, France, UK and the US are admitting the impotence of their legal system, and betraying the principles of fair justice on which their societies were built.

Emmanuel Macron has allowed 13 French Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) fighters to be tried in Iraq, the UK government will not take back ‘jihadi bride’ Shamima Begum, an example that was followed by Donald Trump’s administration with New Jersey-born Hoda Muthana, who is set for a lengthy court battle to return from Syria.

Notwithstanding the Guardian’s campaign that urged us to “put ourselves in Shamima’s shoes,” the calls have proved overwhelmingly popular with the electorate, and on either side of the English Channel about three quarters of those polled are in favor.

Shamima Begum ©  Screenshot from YouTube/BBC

In actual fact, there is little cause for jubilation, even on the optimistic assumption that the Islamists never make it back to familiar shores.

Those gloating are essentially saying, “Our society can’t be possibly trusted to punish the people who committed and enabled some of the most systematically and dogmatically cruel violence in human history, so let’s palm them off to others so that they get some rough Iraqi justice.”

ALSO ON RT.COMTrump refuses to let ‘remorseful ISIS wife from Alabama’ back into US, setting Twitter on fire

How heinous would their crimes have to be before some of the world’s most sophisticated legal systems would be able to overcome the campaigners, pro bono lawyers, and liberal journalists who will be drawn to the case?

Wouldn’t it be an indictment of their societies if after the end of the Second World War, instead of the Nuremberg Trials, the Allies simply allowed the top Nazis (most of whom, incidentally didn’t travel half the world to volunteer) to be taken to Stalin’s gulags, and come what may.

ALSO ON RT.COMBut they are dangerous! Europe reluctant to ‘take back’ ISIS fighters as Trump demands

While such sentiment is understandable among the public - Begum in a refugee camp is preferable to her back out on the streets of Bethnal Green - the situation reflects more poorly on the integrity of the Western leaders.

If France doesn’t believe in capital punishment – which its recruits could face in Iraq – or the UK applies softer sanctions to the underage, as Begum was when she left the country, then these are principles that are worth fighting for, whether the crime occurred at the Bataclan or in Raqqa. Can a fair trial be guaranteed in present-day Iraq?

Emmanuel Macron agreed deal with Iraqi President Barham Saleh ©  Christophe Ena / POOL / AFP

If, however, you as a Western leader believe that the system is currently too soft, why not change it? Why not introduce life sentences for Islamic State members, whether or not you could prove whether they beheaded someone on video with their own hunting knife? It’s your job as a politician, and it’s not like lawmakers lack the popular mandate on the issue. No one wants another Guantanamo, but it wouldn’t have to exist if the law was more certain in the first place.

ALSO ON RT.COMPregnant ISIS recruit pleads with UK to ‘bring me home,’ but minister warns of prosecution

Now, instead of grappling with these complex moral choices, here comes the elegant solution, which in practice involves unseemly citizen-stripping manipulations and other violations of normal conventions for treating own citizens overseas. The result: the West looks hypocritical – happy to eat the chicken, but not to watch the slaughter. Content to make exceptions, but not to reform.

And while allowing suspects to disappear into the vortex of foreign justice can seem risk-free, such decisions tend to backfire: if, say, anything happens to Shamima Begum or her child while she is abroad, she will become an undeserved martyr both to West-hating jihadists and to liberal media, who will jump on an actual reason to campaign on her behalf, besides identity politics.

The entire situation would be an amazing loss of moral high ground for the West, in the one situation where it would seem virtually impossible. In truth, it already has been.

Igor Ogorodnev

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.