Who’ll be the next jihadi-jackpot winner?

Reading the news this week of Jihadi Jack (née Letts, of Oxfordshire) having his UK passport withdrawn, my mind went to a Canadian television programme earlier this year. While most people can’t recall what was on TV last night, for us connoisseurs of western masochism the 2019 Easter edition of Tout le monde en parle (Television de Radio-Canada) was a collector’s item. The subject was Omar Khadr.

In case you haven’t had the pleasure, the Khadrs are a Canadian family of Palestinian-Egyptian origin. Since 2001 they have had a sketchy patch. Specifically, family members have shown a terrible propensity for being at ‘weddings’ at the wrong place and time. Specifically around the Pakistan-Afghan border. And generally involving less an exchange of vows so much as an exchange of bullets with infidel soldiers. Papa Khadr died in one such exchange (of ammunition, not vows) while one son was wounded in action. Another son, Omar, was captured and taken to Guantanamo Bay where he was charged with the killing of US Sergeant Christopher Speer.