The three young girls who have purportedly fled to Syria

GillT57. Worrying and fearing about something, or praying and giving the burden of worry and fear to God, is completely different do doing something.

They are two different and seperate things.
I may not have written my previous post clear enough. Apologies.

As you hinted at before Mishap, IS are not even keeping to their religious book.

But they will have recourse to their book to justify their actions, just as the moderates do.

A christian could have recourse to the bible to justify all sorts of things that we would all regard as unacceptable. And indeed they have done over the centuries.

All sorts of potential acts of violence are within 50 miles of everyone Mishap.

I think ramping up the perception of there being imminent danger on the sort of scale that ISIS presents will create fear, suspicion and hatred and, in my view anyway, is probably not the best way to go.

But they will have recourse to their book to justify their actions, just as the moderates do.

but the human-imposed trappings are what has led religion astray

I am confused by these two parts of your posts, Mishap. Does your second one answer your first one?

Definitely not!

The kernel of all religions seems to be kindness, but the holy books used to justify their actions are human-written, not god-written.

And yet all religions still justify their actions on the basis of their chosen holy books - which are the product of people influenced by their times and mores and vested interests and personal fads.

If more religious people went back to the kindness kernel and stopped quoting their books, then they would engender much more respect; and the world would be a safer place.

I hear what you are saying Eleothan - I was trying to make the point to soon that we cannot bury our heads in the sand and only be concerned when the problem is right in our back garden, because this problem of fundamentalism is on our doorstep (as too are indeed many other problems and dangers as you rightly say). It is hard to know to what degree perceptions have been ramped up, and to what degree fear and suspicion is appropriate - hatred most certainly not - but something is going seriously awry and we cannot ignore it; and there are good grounds to be afraid. Global nuclear war is not beyond the bounds of possibility when such polarization exists.

Central to the problem is the hatred in which the west is held in the minds of may. I do not think our leaders are innocent in this situation. The sacred cows of capitalism and competition have not resulted in much to be proud of - and democracy is an imperfect animal in itself. There are those who feel safer with "certainties", whether real or invented, and who will fight to the death not to be asked to think.

Now it appears that these girls stole and sold family jewellery to pay for their tickets, and also were given letters meant for the parents, from the police, concerning investigations into their radicalisation. These never reached the parents.
Seemingly more is coming to light, showing they're not innocent and naive girls.
Very worrying for othe Muslim families I would imagine.

The families of the three girls criticise the police for sending the letter informing parents that a girl from the school had gone to Syria, was sent home with the children rather that given directly to the parents. I heard one family member putting total responsibility for the girls leaving on this. They claim had they been informed, they'd have been warned and so able to prevent their girls following suit.

The three girls were spoken to by police at school. Neither police, school staff or family members had any indication these three girls were at risk. Sir Bernard HH has apologised for sending the letter home with the children. My daughters were typical 15 year olds and I'm sure we didn't know everything they were doing away from home. But I'm certain that if they'd been questioned by the police about anything, particularly the fact a girl they knew had gone missing/to Syria - they'd have talked about it before taking their coats off when they got in from school.

i confess to feeling irritated that the police are being blamed again. I do sympathise with the distress the families feel but to apportion blame to the police seems unfair. They were walking a fine line between sharing relevant information and maintaining confidentiality for the girl and her family. These situations are complex and relatively new - we need to learn from them, rather than apportion blame when it seems to me, that is unnecessary and wrong in this case.

The family of one girl was on TV tonight denying that expensive jewellery was taken 'only worth £100' one said. The families are refusing to take any responsibility for any aspect of this sad case. The tickets cost almost £2,500 so they got money from somewhere or someone. Someone is not telling the truth.

I still cannot believe the parents knew nothing about it, that seems so bizarre IMO

If one of my children had taken a piece of jewellery worth £100 I would have not been happy. I think it's a tissue of lies. And it is the parents' fault. Not the police.

The parents are blaming everyone other than themselves, about time they took some responsibility for their children, their children's behaviour and actions and this whole sorry mess.

Exactly as I always suspected.

I agree with 'gillybob' and 'mishap' It's a very sad state of affairs, and I can only imagine that the girls think they are on some sort of an adventure. However, it angers me that parents, these days, are always passing the buck by putting the blame on anyone else but themselves. It's always the fault of the government/authorities/schools. How could any of the latter be responsible for the actions THEIR children

It is a very sad state of affairs indeed EGNAN . The (stupid) girls obviously do think that they are on some kind of "adventure". I can't forgive their actions though, as considering the recent media and press coverage of events in Syria they know exactly what they are heading into.

I hope they never come back to be honest.

Exactly EGNAN.Obviously there was deceit all round on the part of the girls, and the families have failed to take responsibility for this