Defections by British citizens to Islamic State typically inspire an entire cycle of reactions. Security-minded commentators demand tougher measures to restrict travel and suppress online propaganda. Others argue that clampdowns are counterproductive, and urge mosques and families to take the lead. The families themselves, while expressing bafflement and grief, turn the spotlight back on to the authorities, attributing their loved ones’ estrangement to either state surveillance or (confusingly) to inadequate attention by the state.
.... it promises a godly cause – the defence of victimised co-religionists – that draws similarly passionate people from all over the world. Troubled young men thereby imagine a land where they can start anew, commanding respect as upholders of God’s law. Unhappy women dream of attaining happiness for the first time – or the second or third, if husbands they take are lucky enough to achieve martyrdom. The fantasies ignore a very vicious reality, of course – but as long as thwarted personalities imagine that Isis can make them true, people will kill and die in their pursuit. [887 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 332] There's a difference between being a lonely disaffected teenager and wanting to join a murderous death cult that brutally beheads people, commits genocide and regularly commits atrocities.
There's no excuse for anyone wanting to join a medieval organisation like ISIS.
[2ND 278] Want to understand the appeal of ISIS? Read the Koran. Followed by the Life of Mohammad. Then, before dropping off for the night, read up on the wars of conquest fought to spread Islam from 632 AD. That should sort it.
[3RD 209] .... There is a narrative being put forward that the those joining ISIS have attitudes totally different from that of the previous generation and there is bewilderment as to how such intolerance could have arisen.
Actually the warnings about the problems with a SIGNIFICANT minority of UK Muslims over Enlightenment, liberal values were there in neon signs a mile high at the time of Rushdie.
Thousands in the streets inciting his murder and I seem to remember about 30% in a poll of UK Muslims agreeing that the Fatwa should be enacted.
And for what - a few lines of alternative take on 1,500 year old superstitions in a novel!!!
Oh and I recall placards saying Rushdie should be beheaded. Does that ring a bell?
The fact that a minority have moved to the even more grotesque intolerance and barbarism of ISIS is not totally surprising as it represents just a move further to the extremes of this mind-set.
[4TH 126] Blimey. A Guardian article which doesn't blame the West. Wonders never cease.
[5TH 196] It did a bit: the reference to the "low-level racism" they supposedly experience in the UK; this apparently providing justification for high-level racism against people in another part of the world, such as the Yazhidis.
[6TH 145] Hmm, when reading this I got to here:
"All lived in deeply traditional Muslim communities, and though such places nurture some insular forms of behaviour"
And I thought, wow someone might actually spot the elephant in the room. But alas the rest of the piece turned into apologists nonsense.
let me ask you, if it is indeed down to abusive fathers, isolated communities, the thrill of adventure and finding a cause (the reasons you have stated), why are all the recruits (sunni) muslim? Are theses solely things that affect muslim youth?
Ok fine, if let's say ISIS/Boko Haram/Al Shabob this is the muslim version of gang culture, why aren't the youth of other religious groups committing racist acts of genocide (bar Kony)? And why aren't our youth flocking to them?
We can't say the real reason can we Sadakat??
I will for you, It's called Islam.
[7TH 137] ISIS is performing a service for us by encouraging undesirable elements to remove themselves from the UK. It's not a loss to us if they die while they're over there. [The Guardian] Read more
