Sunday People political editor Nigel Nelson is trying to understand why young Muslims join Islamic State. But so-called experts are incapable of explaining it
If ever I gave you the impression I’m the kind of person who thinks he knows all the answers then here’s a question to which I know I don’t.
Why are some young British Muslim men and women so attracted to the murderous barbarism of Islamic State they’d rather live in hellholes like Syria and Iraq than here?
People like the Dawood sisters and their nine children from Bradford who finally made it into the caliphate’s clutches on their second attempt.
Or a lad like Talha Asmal, 17, of Dewsbury, West Yorks who preferred to blow up himself and 11 others than study for A levels.
To be remembered as Britain’s youngest suicide bomber is hardly much of an epitaph.
David Cameron blames sections of the Muslim community who “quietly condone” IS.
But I’m not convinced it would make much difference to these young people if they noisily condemned it.
So when I heard a trailer for BBC Radio 4 show Moral Maze promising to answer the question which baffles me I tuned in eagerly.
But the programme left me none the wiser.
One witness argued there was no difference between British Muslims running off to join IS and British socialists heading for the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
Or to the adventure hunters who left everything behind to sign up to the French Foreign Legion.
Another witness said at least civil war volunteers were fighting for democracy against fascism whereas IS are fascists fighting democracy.
I’m not sure I buy that either. The 1930s socialist hero was Joe Stalin who was just another genocidal fascist wearing a winter coat.
The consensus seemed to be that if Brits want to die for Islamic State then that’s their funeral.
The British State has a duty of care to anyone under the age of 18, and must do everything in its power to stop them leaving.
But those adults who do go must understand this is not a gap year of crucifying, beheading and bombing. They should never be allowed back into Britain again. Not ever.
Washing our hands of these people is a solution of sorts, I suppose.
But it’s not the answer to my original question.
CRACKING THE WHIP
I’m not so much cracking the whip today as pausing from my usual tongue-lashing.
That’s because Labour’s Paul Flynn has tabled a Commons motion worth a second thought.
He says the legal high ban is wrong because “prohibition of drugs usually results in increased use.”
As evidence he cites harsh new 1971 drug laws which caused heroin and cocaine addiction to rise from 1,000 to 320,000 cases.
He says Ireland now has the highest number of legal high users in Europe following its 2010 ban.
This newspaper has campaigned long and hard against the perils of legal highs.
But we’re always prepared to make space for an alternative view.
NELSON’S i
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My favourite tweet on Donald Trump running for US President. “If he gets elected there’ll be hell toupee.”
It's a crying shame for Sir Tim
Nobel prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt quit University College London after rashly saying ladies in laboratories are trouble because “when you criticise them they cry.”
What we need is proper scientific research into the matter. Don’t expect any from Women’s minister Caroline Dineage. She said: “We have made no assessment on gender disparities in the propensity to cry in the workplace and have no plans to do so.” Boo-hoo.
What a swell party it was!
An enterprising US public relations outfit offers politicians a ‘rent-a-crowd’ service so they appear more popular than they are. To ensure no one finds out, the company says “all crowd members sign binding non-disclosure agreements.” I see a golden marketing opportunity for this PR firm in Bournmouth on 19th September. The Lib Dem Party conference will need some extra bodies.
