What cheek asking UK to turn other cheek

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5

Edith Piaf sang her famous song about having no regrets in her life. I was reminded of this when I read the national media report of the British woman Shamima Begum, now 19 years of age, who ran away to Syria as a schoolgirl in 2015 to join the Islamic State group.

In an interview with the Times newspaper she stated that she had no regrets but wanted to come back to the UK as she was nine months pregnant and wished to have her child born "at home."

It is reported that in Syria she married an IS fighter and had two children who  both died of illness and malnutrition and that she does not want this to happen to her third child. She told the interviewer that she had seen decapitated captives heads in a basket and "this did not faze her at all"  UK Security Minister Ben Wallace was quoted as saying she would be investigated if she came back. She could face prosecution for joining a terrorist organisation and terrorist related activities.

Star correspondent John Fowler has recently been taken to task by some readers for his Christian view regarding "turning the other cheek"  As this woman is of the Islamic faith I am minded to ask the question does the Koran have a version of turning the other cheek? Shamima reportedly left her London home in 2015 without her parents knowledge or consent to join the Islamic State group. As the jihadist fighters of that group are now verging on total defeat, she and many other women are now in a refugee camp in Syria. If her husband and his colleagues had been victorious would she have still wished to come home - to a home and family which she chose to secretly leave to join the terrorist group in 2015?

It is further reported that following a poll of opinion among her London Islamic community neighbourhood, many people were of the opinion that she did not represent them in her actions. However some leading community figures, including a senor police officer, are of the opinion that she was groomed as a child in 2015 to join the terrorist group and that she should be allowed to return to her London home. My personal view is that the police officer and his supporters have a lot of cheek in asking the UK to turn the other cheek!