Three school girls joining the Islamic Radical group

I'm following the news of the three school girls (two of them are 15 and one is 16 years of age) from UK who has travelled to Turkey and then onward to Syria to join the Islamic Terror group called ISIS/ISIL. [1]

These girls are believed to be influenced by social media and Internet personalities who are very supportive of the core message of ISIL. Most of us, who are sane, recognize ISIS/ ISIL as a terror group who has committed unimaginable horror acts indiscriminately in Syria and Iraq. However, many Muslims from various part of the world support this group by claiming that ISIS/ISIL are waging a Jihad or Holy War in Syria/Iraq and their activities are completely legal under Islam.

I was watching and reading news about pleas from the members of the families [2] who want these girls found and brought home. The girls' family didn't divulge a lot of private information about the girls. They just want them back. I'm certain that there's more to this story than what we have been told so far, but we won’t know much because generally Muslim families have a tendency to hide a lot of secrets and not talk about anything that may potentially bring the family a bad name or shame. If everything was going so well at home or school then these girls are running away for no reason whatsover? That’s very hard to believe.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, from the East London Mosque and a former teacher at Bethnal Green Academy, said all the parents "were shocked". "Children running away from home or disappearing is every parent's nightmare," he told BBC Breakfast. He said the girls were "talented and dynamic" but "impressionable" and that they could end up "with the most vile and dangerous group on earth" was "heartbreaking" for the parents.

Some folks are also pointing fingers at the authority for not doing enough to stop these girls from being contacted by those who are preying on young impressionable girls.

"Security services have been criticised after it emerged that - before leaving the UK - Shamima sent a Twitter message to Aqsa Mahmood, who left Glasgow for Syria in 2013 to marry an Islamic State fighter." "According to a lawyer for Ms Mahmood's family, her Twitter account has been "monitored" by police since she left Britain - and he said authorities should have seen Shamima's message and taken action before she and her two friends followed."

I'm generally supportive of authorities who are investigating extremists who are known to use violent means to achieve their objectives. Extremists can be from any religious background and from any segment of society. But it is completely unrealistic to demand and expect that the authority watch and monitor each and every twitter messages or Facebook posts so they can be analyzed in-depth. No one can babysit your children or teenagers for you, especially silly teenage girls who are looking for 'Islamic' husbands on Internet.

You would think that it would be very hard to enter a war-torn-area controlled by Islamic Extremists, but it’s actually ridiculously simple based on this news report[3].

intelligence sources in Turkey said Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, appeared to have travelled by car to the border on Friday, from where they crossed into the Isil-controlled town of Tal Abyad. They were travelling with a Syrian male in a private car. They were using Syrian identity cards. “We understand that after arriving in Istanbul the girls met an Isil member who is charged with helping foreigners who want to join the group.” The source said the girls stayed in Istanbul for two days before travelling to the border.There is someone co-ordinating with them. A smuggler. They can’t move by themselves.”

References

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31575908

[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31589762

[3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11427505/Schoolgirls-have-already-crossed-Syrian-border-say-sources.html