A UK shooting range has come under fire for using an image of ISIS Briton Shamima Begum as a target, alongside other controversial figures such as Margaret Thatcher, Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch.
Ultimate Airsoft Range in Wallesey, northwest England, posted an image on Twitter showing a picture of Ms Begum being used as a bullseye target with the hashtag “no remorse” and “made your choice”. The tweet was removed after a backlash from other social media users.
A UK shooting range is defending using images of Shamima Begum as target practice because of a ‘record number of requests’ from its customers.
— Catrin Nye (@CatrinNye) February 27, 2019
It allows people ‘to have some light-hearted fun bringing out the inner child in all” they’ve told @VictoriaLIVE. pic.twitter.com/fJgbKw5ST3
“Our targets provide some fantastic reactions and conversations... bringing out the inner child in all,” a spokesperson for the range told the BBC.
The local MP, Angela Eagle, criticised the decision to use living people as targets.
Ms Begum left her home in east London at the age of 15 to join ISIS in 2015 with two of her schoolmates.
She married Dutch ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk and had two older children who both died. She wants to return to the UK with her new-born third child, but was stripped of her British citizenship by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
Mr Javid made the decision after receiving advice that Begum could qualify for Bangledeshi citizenship. Officials in Dhaka have said they won’t let her in either.
