to think they should charge the Syria girls

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If they are indeed with terrorists in Syria then when a small chink of sense comes back to them and they want to come home, I hope they will be charged.

It said today on the news that children can travel alone from the age of 12.

FWIW I was very sorry for the two girls arrested in Peru as well. So easy to be idiotic when you are young.

If the girls were white they would be criticised appropriately. Remember the two girls who tried to smuggle drugs from Peru? They were vilified for their stupidity and criminality

That's not true. I was on those threads here. There was not a consensus of "appropriate crisitism". There was a split in terms of reaction, much like there is on those related to this context..

The Peru2 were women, not girls. And these things are not spur of the moment things. They take planning, finance, research... Not like pinching a lippy from Boots on a Saturday afternoon.

Seems pretty contradictory to me that young people of this age aren't expected to take personal responsibility for their actions, yet can board international flights without adult accompaniment or permission needed. If they're at risk, there should be mechanisms to protect them from themselves. Or do we only expect that from the government and security services, while profit making companies get to do whatever they like?

Does anyone else think it might be worth casting an eye over exactly what's being taught in the school these girls attended? I realise a lot of their influences may have come from elsewhere, but it's hard to forget the cases where extremists are said to have been invited into schools ...

It sounds like airlines need to change their policies as a start.

Are schools upto the job of countering an utopian ideology? Personally, I'd have thought that's the job of the military, the media, the whole of society, especially parents, and governments.

The statement their parents released is probally carefully worded and it leaves the door open for them to turn back before it's too late and come home. I think it's right.

How big is the problem? How many Muslim teenagers are reading IS propaganda?

I read the school's Ofsted report. It contains some facts which might (or might not) be relevant. Only 40% of the pupils are girls. 75% of the pupils do not have English as their first language. The school has obviously made great strides in teaching the kids to pass exams, but maybe there should be more to the curriculum.
We can speculate all we like but we don't know how much access to the ordinary TV or radio news the girls have at home or if they have friends who know what the general current of opinion is in the UK

The problem is that the Saudis have exported the only other thing that they have to export apart from oil - Wahhabi Islam. Many Islamic schools in the UK have been influenced by this very conservative strain of Islam and its influence has been nothing but negative.

If we want to look at the reasons behind the decisions made by these girls and others like them, I think we need to lay some of the blame with the government for doing little to stop the spread of this pernicious ideology in both Islamic Schools and mosques and unfortunately we are all party to this because we are so dependent on Saudi oil. The sooner we wean ourselves off the Saudi/Middle Eastern oil teat the sooner we can stop being so craven to these ideologies that are infecting our society.

I think Conference makes a valid point.

What would these girls have had to look forward to if they had stayed at home? If it was the case that they were destined for arranged marriages and totally domesticated lives, the perceived excitement of breaking free to Syria may have been very attractive.

jesus murphy this thread

why not preemptively jail and flog everyone on the basis that they may do something (people have done things, people like you!)

ffs

Sally, where does conference make that point? I think we need to be careful about speculating as to these girls' motives. Because, we just don't know them. But, it might be fair to make a wider point that bleak prospects may have been a contributing factor in the flow of the estimated 50-60 girls and women from the UK who have gone to Syria. That might be true. And, if it is true, what's to be done about it? Some university students have gone and female doctors are on social media broadcasting propaganda, too. So, bleak prospects can't be all, by any means.

Puzzled

I think you are right about the schools. Perhaps the children are too segregated and not receiving a very broad education. Ofstead give some schools such a hard time over not being diverse enough e.g. Market Raisin or Devon yet I wonder about the girls' education in this case.

price list and rules

I really hope these girls are intercepted before they reach there.

chibi I missed the bit about flogging them. I also missed the bit where people say they wouldn't deserve a trial if they are found to have associated with known terrorists.
If you could link to the flogging bit that would be useful.

Turkish reports say that they crossed the Syrian border into IS controlled Tal Abyad on Friday.

ghost good point.

These girls had twitter accounts and were social media savvy. Two days earlier Shamima Begum tweeted Aqsa Mahmood, a known terrorists.

Stop thinking of all muslim girls as being oppressed victims of their families or society and shut off from the mainstream. Virtually none live such repressive, isolated lives in the UK. Frequently its the parents struggling to understand and cope with the conservatism and fundamentalism their children have adopted.

Even if there are expectations of an arranged marriage and domesticity, there are enough of their peers now who have broken free and set a precedent by following their own paths, who they could emulate. Hacking heads off is not what would be the first thought that would occur to the average decent teen looking for independence and freedom. Anyone making such excuses for their behaviour is an idiot.

I think they should be sent to prison - 100%.

And have their passports revoked.

It sounds like airlines need to change their policies as a start.

That's ridiculous. Loads of under 18s travel in and out of the UK for all sorts of reasons.
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