THE death of Shamima Begum’s baby boy last week has shamed Britain.

Reactions to the loss of this innocent have highlighted the moral vacuum into which this country has fallen. Social media is flooded with racist and Islamophobic bile on this tragedy and our national press is full of lurid details on this “Isis bride” mother. All encouraged of course, by “moral cowardice”, to use former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald’s withering phrase to describe the hapless Home Secretary.

Sajid Javid’s decision to rescind Shamima Begum’s British citizenship and to abandon her and her baby to the squalid and inadequate conditions of the refugee camp in Syria has had the most tragic consequences. The wee soul didn’t even make it past three weeks, dying of pneumonia. Shamima Begum’s other two children had also met the same fate from similar illnesses and malnutrition. More children lost to war and terror. Another innocent sacrificed, but this time on the altar of this Home Secretary’s hot pursuit of a change of personal address in Westminster.

There is no argument about the atrocities committed by Daesh and its supporters, as well as the level of brainwashing in their camps, and there is only mitigation about the bad choices Shamima Begum made which have led her to this awful situation.

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Nevertheless, it’s impossible to defend the headline grabbing decision made by Javid to strip her of her British citizenship and deny protection to her baby. There is no moral code, no religion and no semblance of humanity which inflicts the supposed sins of the mother on the child. In the dominant religion of this country it is often expressed in scriptural reference as “suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not”.

Not only did Javid attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator in political discourse, but it is the most shameful and cruel reaction given Begum’s age and the vulnerability of her child. It is also a complete violation of international law, as Diane Abbott has pointed out. Abbott has been subject to appalling abuse for suggesting that Javid behaved in an inhumane way and could have done so much more to save the wee boy.

The same sewage has been poured on me online when I described Javid’s decision as callous. But despite these social media keyboard warriors banging their bigoted drum, the reality is that the UK had a moral responsibility to Begum and her son.

The National: Sajid Javid revoked the British citizenship of Shamima BegumSajid Javid revoked the British citizenship of Shamima Begum

After all, she was radicalised here in Britain, not somewhere else; she is not the only young woman to be caught up in this disaster; nor is she the only one to have pleaded to return home. We now know that two other women have had their citizenship removed and are stuck in Syria with their young children. Given there may be more in the same peril, Javid’s knee-jerk, careerist, fixated approach has not shed any light on how he plans to deal with similar scenarios in the future.

Fortunately, Abbott’s Urgent Question on the plight of Shamima Begum and her baby to the House of Commons on Monday left Javid little room to hide from his previously muted reaction to the child’s death.

His eventual response was to double down on his decision, repeating his commitment to the protection of the UK at all costs, to a general reaction of disgust from most other MPs present in the Chamber. No one is questioning that we should protect UK citizens from the evils of Daesh. This in fact is the very issue at hand, that we should have protected this newborn from his fate, an innocent British citizen – a baby with not a single speck of blood on his hands.

Is it any surprise that the Tory Government has failed in its moral obligation in this case? Look at its track record – Windrush, the wider hostile environment, austerity, abandoning pension commitments to a whole generation of WASPI women, rejecting EU nationals and celebrating the end of freedom of movement, and jeopardising the peace process in Northern Ireland with talk of a hard border due to Brexit. Humanity and moral responsibility are not reflected in this UK Government’s decision-making process.

They don’t take the long view on protecting British citizens unless they fulfil a very narrow criterion. And post Brexit without protection from the EU and perhaps the European Convention, if Theresa May gets her way, the human rights we recognise and take for granted today could be a dim and distant memory for all of us, regardless of our religious affiliations or racial background.

READ MORE: Our UK citizenship can be taken away on a whim of the Home Secretary

Despite Javid’s decision and some of the despicable reactions online and in the media, many people across the country have felt deep sorrow at the needless death of this baby. To lose a child is dreadful, it tears at the very centre of your heart and soul. It is a loss that you never really fully get over.

I know this from my own personal experience. I was lucky enough to go on to have four wonderful children who have grown and thrived, but nothing can replace the loss of my two babies. There is always the question of what might have been.

I was only 21 when I had my first miscarriage, and I wonder how this young woman at the age of just 19, can cope with the loss of three babies, in quick succession.

Shamima Begum’s world must be in turmoil, despite the fact that she is indeed no average teenager, having been groomed by a terrorist organisation at the age of 15, before taking the dangerous journey to leave her family and join Daesh.

She made this choice, but surely not of her own free will due to insidious radicalisation, and it has cost her so dearly. Rather than punish her further, the UK Government should take moral responsibility for this young woman and bring her home to face justice for any crimes committed, with steps to rehabilitate put in place as part of her facing of justice.

Begum’s lawyer has this week asked Sajid Javid for “an act of mercy” after the death of her son and to reconsider his decision to take away her citizenship.

Javid does not look like he will waver on his controversial ruling, but ultimately it will be international law that will determine if his bid to make her stateless can be upheld.

In any case it is now too late for the ambitious Home Secretary. Whatever his puerile excuses, whatever his hand-wringing, whatever his tough-guy act, he is no longer upwardly politically mobile. No-one succeeds in politics if they are thought to have the blood of innocents on their hands.

The wee boy’s name was Jarrah. It is too late for international law, or indeed any earthly power, to save him. But, and this is the grace which resonates through all faiths – may gentle Jesus meek and mild, look upon this little child.

I know not whether the Home Secretary is familiar with much of the Scots language, but he might do well to reflect on these lines:

“God’s Kingdom is o’ such as these
Sae learn to be like thaim
Wi bairn like heart, an bairn like faith Gin ye wad enter in.”