To not understand why someone from the UK with a British education would want to join an extremist organisation

[Wowthishurtsalot]

I don't understand it. Moreso if they are 2nd and older generation British who could have conversations with their elders as to why they emigrated to the UK and the hope they had when they came here.

What is the attraction?

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

I would guess they are somehow being marginalised in the UK, and want to feel a sense of belonging, the same reason nice middle class children join gangs.

[hiddenhome]

They get to make friends and run around with guns?

Young people always believe they want to change the world and they have the time and energy to do it

[msrisotto]

I see it as rebellion against the discrimination they face living in the very country they were born.

[bodhranbae]

It has nothing to do with ethnicity and religion.
Not really.
It is about confused, disenfranchised young men looking for adventure and somewhere to attach their rage and anger.
Extremist organisations only survive because of young angry men.
Plus some people really get off on violence. That is why war as a concept has never gone out of fashion.

[Marylou2]

They are brainwashed and radicalised by religious fanatics who despise the western way of life and our values of tolerance and equality. The failure of some religious and ethnic groups to integrate into British society can make their offspring easy targets.

[hiddenhome]

Gah, all young men are angry. It's nothing to do with being marginalised.

I have a mini Marxist upstairs. He's always ranting and raving about stuff. It's the way their brains are wired up.

[AesSedai]

It has nothing to do with ethnicity and religion.

I haven't heard of any local Baptists/Methodists joining up yet !

[paxtecum]

I don't think the illegal Iraq war helped. In fact it probably started it.

Guantanamo Bay doesn't help. The torture of terrorist suspects carried out by the USA, but it doesn't seem to be illegal because it is in a US Naval Base in Cuba.

Of course it's ok, because the USA have God on their side.

[Sunna]

It happened in Ulster as well, I believe their terrorists were supposedly Christians.

[JanineStHubbins]

In the 1930s plenty of British Christians went off to fight in Spain; in the 1940s plenty of British and European Jews went off to fight in Palestine. The 'foreign fighter' phenomenon is not specific to one ethnicity or religion AesSedai

[ghostyslovesheep]

they are young, idealistic, full of their own indestructibility and a sense of self righteousness

the young have always been a great source of canon fodder for extremists and not so extremists

plus if they are constantly being told they don't belong here ...

[Wowthishurtsalot]

Well this is it its not just Muslim men is it. It's many other faiths or causes too.

I guess it might just be a case of angry young men needing a focus

[Hassled]

I don't understand it either, but then I'm not a disenfranchised, dissatisfied youth from an ethnic minority - I don't think I can hope to understand, and that's where the problem lies.

[ghostyslovesheep]

it's not just men

[Wowthishurtsalot]

Very true ghosty

[AesSedai]

The 'foreign fighter' phenomenon is not specific to one ethnicity or religion AesSedai

We're not talking about in the past Janine - we're talking about NOW. And 'now' it is not Ulster, or Spanish Freedom Fighters is it? They are long gone. Now it is young Muslims (let's be honest here what we are talking about).

The one difference between Ulster/Spanish/Isis is that you cannot return from Isis if you find it is not your idealised life after all. As those young women have no doubt found out - and brutally, at that.

[TalkinPeace]

Faith Schools
often single sex
nothing to balance the junk they see on the interweb

the sooner ALL faith selection in state schools in the UK is ended the better

[alemci]

perhaps an adventure like those young men in WW1 who signed up and in some cases to get away from their communities and parents who want to run their lives.

[MistressMia]

Disenfranchised ... disaffected .... marginalised ... what bollocks.

Medics and other professionals and graduates have all gone over too. In fact the vast majority we hear about are all those with seemingly affluent or middle class backgrounds, in some cases privately educated, and with good prospects.

Well this is it its not just Muslim men is it. It's many other faiths or causes too. ... really which other faiths members are currently beheading, raping and crucifying people ?

[WooWooOwl]

They go because they can see a different type of injustice. I think a lot of it goes back to Palestine. It is not unreasonable to feel that the British/American way isn't the right way, even if you were born here. Clearly, an appropriate reaction to feeling those things is not to go and join a terrorist organisation abroad, but people feel passionate about all sorts of things.

[specialsubject]

I saw a TV interview with the mother of one of these people. She had the guts to use the word 'brainwashed'. So should we.

I'm also slightly puzzled how young teens get the money and the passport to head off to Syria.

[JanineStHubbins]

The Lords Resistance Army has a pretty nasty rap-sheet. So do Buddhist terrorist groups in Myanmar. Their activities don't get reported so much though.

[bodhranbae]

Why does nobody mention the young men and women from all over the world who volunteer for combat roles with the Israeli Defence Forces?

[AesSedai]

Jews have an unpleasant habit of killing children? (That is an outrageous thing to say by the way.)

You mean after people in the Gaza strip kidnapped and killed their young men?