To feel sorry for these parents

[Redskyatnight88]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-48372230

Difficult situation but I think most parents would send money if they believed their son or daughter could be in danger. I feel very sorry for them that this has ended up in court.

When young people begin to go off the rails their parents can become desperate, fearful of losing them and unable to say no. I don't know if that is the case here, but I have certainly seen it in relation to drug addiction.

Genevieva I understand the type of person they go for but how do they find them online?
He must have been looking at things & expressing opinions that already suggested he had some interest in their cause (same with the 3 girls) these sites are not easy to stumble into, he must have been looking for them to some extent.

I ddon't even feel slightly sorry for them. They knew what he was doing (and where he was,) and they still sent him money.

Hope they get 20 years.

I have no sympathy for them, they were told to hide his passport as others felt he had been radicalised and instead paid for a flight to Jordan.

Then despite being told not to by police, they tried on 3 occasions to send him money knowing he was in Syria with an IS group.

I'm with Chloemol on this one.

I know absolutely nothing about this case. I am surprised by how little money has triggered a criminal prosecution. It’s the kind of money parents regularly wire to older teens or young adults.

@nancy75 he was radicalised face to face. Some local muslims (from the mosque) tried to warn his parents, but it sounds as they chose to believe his not very convincing assurances.

Later, when he moved from Jordan, then Kuwait, into Daesh territory, the truth belatedly dawned on them.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/jihadi-jack-parents-syria-flight-ticket-british-airways-isis-middle-east-court-a8926001.html

One friend from the local mosque contacted his parents to warn them about that possibility of their son secretly leaving the UK to join the Syrian conflict, and urged them to confiscate his passport.

Despite those concerns, they paid for Jack to fly to Jordan in May 2014, apparently for a study trip, the prosecution said.

Either they were fucking dim or didn’t care what their teenage son was up to. I have no sympathy here, I find the whole story rather odd in all honesty. If people were telling me that my son had been radicalised, sending them straight to the boarders of the conflict would be the last thing any sane parent would do.

That is interesting Rubbertree. The knowledge that Islamic extremism exists is fairly commonplace. He may have got involved in moderate mainstream Islam in order to seek out a group of extremists to join, or he may have been interested in normal Islam and then have become radicalised afterwards.

Either way, I agree nancy75 that he must have been searching for something. I think the drugs analogy works quite well. I know logically that there will be drug dealers in our local town, even though I know nothing about them. If I was interested in taking illegal drugs I could probably seek them out. Similarly, I would have no idea where on the web you would look to access this extremist content, but no doubt I could find it if I wanted to.

The OP was about the parents though. There is a level on which I do feel sorry fo them. They have lost their son to a vile form of extremism and they will never get him back.

r he may have been interested in normal Islam and then have become radicalised afterwards

I don't think that is how it is for the white European converts/supporters of IS?

I think they are disaffected and looking for a cause. Islam fills their need for fighting. I don't think they have any genuine interest in the practice of a religion, or any actual belief

@Lolly25 I thought that had been categorically proved untrue? It was one of the other girls parents and shamima Begums parents didn't have any knowledge of what she was doing. A picture was circulated of her 'father' at some protest but it was one of the other girls parents.

I have sympathy that they lost their son. But they ARE guilty of funding terrorism and should be found guilty

Maybe send them back to where they came from. Or to Syria. UK shouldn't support them, if we are applying logic uniformly

Those parents are dangerously stupid.

Shamina Begum’s father was heavily involved in anti west groups and took her from a young child to flag burning protests etc..... she is the product of his evil.

Exactly.

This guy KILLED people. His parents didn't report him to police and funded his activity.

Shamina didn't kill anyone. When she reached her destination, she was used to bear children

There'll be more coming out about how they pandered to his "OCD" and couldn't bear to think of his life out there and so justsent him money tofund is

Shamina didn't kill anyone.

She supported a barbaric regime that killed people, including many Muslims. I am assuming that none of the people who think she should be allowed back in have lost a love one to a terrorist attack.

I have also read that the UK government DID try to arrange his return to the UK (he wouldn't come)

He has Canadian citizenship. His father is Canadian. Send the lot of them to Canada, they can deal with them

Can someone post a clickable link to the news story? Thanks.

Oi! What happened there?

... sent him money to fund his "grand adventure"

Mr Letts messaging his son to talk about his "grand adventure".

They sounds about as disconnected to their son, as he really is, as it is possible to be!

I have actually Hermione, more than 1

It remains that she didn't kill anyone. JL DID. Yet SB and her family are judged much more harshly than JL and his family, by the UK press, government and public

Yes I feel sorry for them too. What a horrible situation to be in. I can imagine sending money in the desperate hope it would be spent on my son extricating himself from the situation.

But there does seem to be far more to "Jihadi Jack" than the OPs link suggests - sorry, I know wiki is a terrible source!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Letts

Mumsnet had no sympathy for Shamina Begun. I am surprised to read that there is sympathy for these 2 people who have been funding ISIS

hold on, let's see if we can work out why

Not really the same thing. She went over there to help ISIS specifically. They weren’t giving money to ISIS to help fund the cause they wanted to help their son.