As a father of 3 daughters I have a huge amount of sympathy for the parents.
But the more I read, the more I see of what is being said, the more I believe that this is not going to be the first or the last time this happens.
These cultures have isolated themselves from British society. They stand apart and hold their values, in the best case as different and in the worst case as superior. In fact they radicalised their own children in a very soft and homely approach. But radicalised once means they are ever more susceptible to radicalisation again to a more extreme form.
Every time we have some Moslem atrocity in the name of their lord, the west asks why they do not decry these acts as being against their faith and against all social mores. Why they say should we be singled out to make this declamation? Well read the article above. That's why. Because you told your already radicalised children that it is OK to do these things by not decrying the acts.
It's not so long ago that Christians were doing the same thing. Inquisition, Conquistadores, Slavery, oppression of women, lack of women's rights. We're not asking these communities to do something we would not. We are asking them to learn from our path to the society we are in today.
The difference or superiority works against them in this case.
Also, considering young girls and young women, there is another part which is never mentioned. For the 20 year old and the 17 year old it is almost certain that their mothers (at least if not their parents), will have raised the subject of their arranged marriages. It doesn't take much radicalisation for these young women to make them think that they can escape one of the pieces of their heritage which they don't want to take part in. For them, choosing a Jihadi, may seem like a much better option than having some person chosen for them that they don't know. The fact that they will have even less choice is something which is carefully kept from them.
In this I have a reasonable amount of knowledge. Both in my family and without. My cousin's wife was relating an acrimonious conversation between her and her sister. "How did you manage to marry the man you wanted" said her sister. "All you had to do was say NO" she returned with. However we know that many in Britain are pressurised into saying yes whether they want to or not.
Whilst my sympathies are with the parents, I believe the entire community needs to take a step back and have a long hard look at what they are doing and how it might be affecting those the love so much.
Of course the knee jerk reaction will be to try and lock up their daughters. Causing exactly the opposite reaction and much, much, more grief for families in the UK who have no need to feel it.
To this end I am struck by one comment from a parent governor at the Bethnal Green Academy
"I still don't believe that they are going anywhere other than a holiday – because this is how they were dressed and this is how they looked and this is how they packed"
See no evil, Hear no evil....... Blind as a bat and deaf as a post. Blinded by prejudice and deafened by his own voice. He knows perfectly well that children from these families would never, for one second, leave their homes and go on a "Holiday" without their parents. The consequences at home would be far too great and they are, when all is said and one, far too sensible to do something so utterly stupid. However their religion allows them one out and only one out. Jihad breaks all borders, all boundaries and all rules. So it can be used to rationalise the move.
As we have seen so often before the communities will try to draw in amongst themselves, rejecting others and going into bunker mentality. If they would only open up they would find a tide of help, sorrow for their loss and as more acceptance than they are prepared for.
Terrible isn't it.
