The three young girls who have purportedly fled to Syria

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

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.

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

Exactly as I always suspected.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

I was watching an interview with Mark Rylance and his director about Wolf Hall. The Director (forgotten his name) remarked that five hundred years ago Christians burned, tortured and beheaded others at the drop of a hat because of the tiniest detail of difference in their beliefs. Public executions of the goriest nature were attended by huge crowds. In fact, the beheading of Ann Boleyn scene in Wolf Hall was very reminiscent of the awful recent beheadings carried out by Isis.

He said Islam started as a religion about 500 years after Christianity and so there was reason to hope that in time Islam would also become as civilised as we are now.

I thought that was an interesting opinion.

But the extremists believe that it is god's plan; how do we pick and choose amongst those views? Is your view of what god's plan is the right one? How do you know that? Assuming the existence of a deity, theirs might be right for all we know. They think yours is the opposite of god's plan. They will have recourse to their holy book to answer the question just as you will. Whose book is right?

Or are neither maybe?

Good job we don't all do that soon or the world would be in a disastrous state. Thankfully there are people like Medicins sans frontiers and Save the Children and others who get in there and help while your God is looking the other way.

I try not to do worry either GillT57. That doesnt help anyone either.
I pray, and give the burden to God.

Of course I have empathy for those who have the daily terror!

There is no way I am going to "share the fear" though. Fearing solves nothing. It only makes the person with the fears, feel awful. That is much more harm than good.

IS is the opposite of God's plan.

surely soon you should be worried about the fate of the Coptic Christians who were kidnapped in Egypt? They are the original believers, not these recent frightening evangelists with their anti-women, anti-gay, anti- abortion anti- science rants.

An interesting article bags - I still puzzle over why disaffected young people might be drawn to this particular way of finding some sort of solidarity.

If you are only frightened of religious extremism and its associated terrorism when it gets within 50 miles of you, could you not try and have empathy and share the fear of all those poor souls for whom it is a daily terror?! I fear for them - not just myself.

It is within 50 miles of you soon - ask Lee Rigby's parents.

Or do you see all this as part of god's plan?

Thought provoking, especially the questioning para. at the end.

A good essay on what draws jihadis to Isis by Omar Waraich in the Guardian.