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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think they should charge the Syria girls

999 replies

adsy · 21/02/2015 08:14

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.

OP posts:
Stealthpolarbear · 21/02/2015 09:02

so we hope theyre in turkey still?

funnyossity · 21/02/2015 09:03

The police have referred to them all as vulnerable but I presume the 16 year old can legitimately do what she wishes, regardless of her parents.

ArmyDad · 21/02/2015 09:03

This wasn't done on a whim though was it? It takes planning to organise this and more to the point it's not cheap. So where did the money come from?

I'll save my sympathy for those who live in Syria who had only the choice to become a refugee or take up arms and fight for their freedom. Not for some fuckwits going to join a group of zealots and utter psychotic murderers

creighton · 21/02/2015 09:03

they are going to Syria to look for sex. they are going to Syria to kill innocent people. I feel sorry for the Syrians who are being murdered by these sex/violence tourists.

Original poster
adsy · 21/02/2015 09:04

I fear for our children. I don't fear for teenage xtremists.
I'll ask again, do you have sympathy for the 7/7 bombers as they were obviously also radicalised and influenced?

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Stealthpolarbear · 21/02/2015 09:05

very good points
i cant help feeling sorry for them as i would if theyd been groomed for sex
its such a mess

Stealthpolarbear · 21/02/2015 09:06

if we can get them back i hope the full force of the law does come doen on them
even for them its the best outcome

Hathall · 21/02/2015 09:06

They've been radicalised through social media websites mostly.
The parents probably didn't have a clue.
They were sold a romantic idea of what life would be like for them. Although a part of me thinks they're silly teenagers with romantic notions, I also think they must have known what they were doing. I mean on a basic level, they knew they were joining extremists.

LokiBear · 21/02/2015 09:06

I am not excusing extremism. I understand and abhor the causes of extremism. There is a difference. Just calling for these girls to be punished plays right into the extremists ' hands - another justification for why their cause is just.

nochocolateforlentteacake · 21/02/2015 09:08

Brain washed groupies.

They have probably been lured over by people, possibly genuinely there or sick trolls telling, them that it is the land of milk and honey, heaven on earth, happy land, where they will marry a lovely guy who will look after them and give them babies and live happily ever after. How they balance that against what they see on the news us beyond me - I guess there are those who say its all propaganda and they don't kill people, oh no, they are too busy flower arranging.

Naive and child-like. I was very naive at that age but not that dumb. My parents didn't try to keep me in a little cocoon of 'people like us' away from 'them', which is sadly often how some of these kids are brought up.

I hope they wake up and don't get sucked into that life. I just can't see the attraction. If you think the west is shit, and an Islamic ruled state is heaven, why not move to an existing one if you really want to live in that way? Why run off to a hell hole at war with blood on the streets? Its hardly Bethnal Green is it? I assume the girls famies weren't originally from Syria or Iraq.

Original poster
adsy · 21/02/2015 09:10

Ah right. So there should be no punishment for people who join terrorist groups as that will annoy the terrorists? excellent point. I think what you're forgetting is that their ideal is a worldwide Islamic state. Pissing them off by justifyingly jailing the ones we catch will make sod all difference to their aims.

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creighton · 21/02/2015 09:12

some posters are saying that their parents don't have a clue, when are they going to get a clue? young people going to join isis has been going on for about a year. these girls families fled from Somalia and other areas where there have been terrible wars and their parents don't have a clue?

LokiBear · 21/02/2015 09:12

I don't think it is about 'feeling sorry' for anyone. I feel angry to be honest. Angry that there is so much violence and bloodshed all around the world in the name of religion. I cant get my head around what it is that motivates people to blow themselves up in pursuit of a cause. I cant believe that a rational person would choose to do it. People aren't born bad. These girls weren't born bad. Whilst I hate and abhor what they are doing, I do not believe they came to their decision all by themselves.

nochocolateforlentteacake · 21/02/2015 09:15

There must be consequences for their actions. A child if 5 knows this.

What these girls have heard and seen already must be bloody chilling. What they will see if they get there will be bloody terrifying. They will be damaged if they return - traumatised, brutalised or numbed to violence and aggression. You can't just slip them back into society.

creighton · 21/02/2015 09:15

even if they get back to this country, who will trust them? if they spend a few months with isis it will be assumed that they have been brainwashed and will create sleeper cells here to be 'activated' in the future. they will permanently be on security watch lists.

ArcheryAnnie · 21/02/2015 09:15

Hmm, no, I haven't said don't punish. But there are organisations who have a lot of experience in deradicalising child soldiers - children who have killed already, often brutally. We should listen to them about how to best deprogramme these brainwashed teens.

MuttersDarkly · 21/02/2015 09:15

These kids running off to a war zone always make me think of Joyce in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

It's not a new thing as such. But I suppose modern communications make it so much easier for those who would flatter and offer attention/prospects of glamour and other High Feelings to impressionable and perhaps "desperate for some limelight" kids.

What a waste of young lives. And their poor bloody parents. I can't imagine the vortex of panic and constant worry this would shove you into.

Perhaps we could do something about having tighter controls regarding minors leaving the country unaccompanied. I just assumed that you'd need official paperwork, or a parents actually at the airport for check in to be able to exit national boarders when under 18. I had no idea kids could just rock up to the airport and leave without alarm bells going off.

Stealthpolarbear · 21/02/2015 09:17

really good points
am i naive to assume that if they are still in turkey it should now be easy to stop the, leaving?

LokiBear · 21/02/2015 09:18

adsy you are twisting what I'm saying. I'm not saying that they won't face punishment, I'm saying that people calling publicly for punishment plays into the extremists hands. They will face the consequences if they come back, but the fact that they have gone in the first place is the real tragedy.

Latara · 21/02/2015 09:19

I do feel a bit sorry for these girls because they are all in fashionable clothes on the CCTV and are going to get a nasty shock when they are made to wear double veils, gloves and black gowns and not be allowed to go out without a man.

It's not as if they were walking round London in Burkhas before they left.. just the odd loosely tied hijab is nothing like the clothing restrictions they'll get in ISIL - let alone the death & destruction they may witness.

I do wonder how they got radicalised and what they were told. Apparently they are grade A students. I also wonder where they got the money to travel to Turkey.

MuttersDarkly · 21/02/2015 09:21

But there are organisations who have a lot of experience in deradicalising child soldiers - children who have killed already, often brutally. We should listen to them about how to best deprogramme these brainwashed teens.

That's a really interesting and potentially very useful idea.

Where we have a knowledge/experience gap it would make sense to bring in people who have developed skills and strategies to bring about the best possible conclusion, with as few "lifelong" casualties as possible.

Original poster
adsy · 21/02/2015 09:22

well you said that punishing them plays into their hands. very much implies you don't think they should be punished

OP posts:
Tinkerball · 21/02/2015 09:24

They still made choices, regardless of how much if a romantic adventure they thought it may be they would know fine well what they were going to. I have no sympathy for them just because they are teenagers.

Original poster
adsy · 21/02/2015 09:27

Teenagers know the difference between right and wrong. I can't see how people can have any sympathy for them.
Let's take it toits conclusion. These girls have been brainwashed then? Radicalised? So if they didn't go to Syria they might have been persuaded to bomb a jewish school in London. Still feeling sorry for them?

OP posts:
AuntieStella · 21/02/2015 09:27

"We should listen to them about how to best deprogramme these brainwashed teens."

Such programmes already exist in UK. And as returnees (or those of concern for reasons other than travel) are not necessarily banged up on long sentences, they are placed on them.

Are you saying the current programmes are poor quality? If so, how should they be improved?

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