As most people will know by now, last month three British girls went missing and it was suspected that they were heading for Syria to join IS. The girls, with ages between 15 and 16, caused a lot of debate over whether they should be found and brought back to the UK. The aim article is not to sway the reader to one opinion or another, but to look at both viewpoints and and try to understand why people feel the way they do on this subject.
Firstly, those who believe the girls should not be allowed back in the country, seem to be afraid of what they might do.
Ignoring the racist comments, I've come across many people that have been affected by the news, images and footage of violence from IS, including beheading hostages and throwing gay people to their deaths. With this in mind it may be understandable that some people prefer that the girls aren't found and brought back into the country, if they share the same point of view as people who committed these acts. Fear can be a powerful thing and can lead to mistrust and, in extreme cases, persecution and judgement, which isn't always targeted at the people responsible for causing the fear in the first place.
The opposite opinion is that the girls are simply misguided, have been brainwashed and need our help before it's too late.
It's understandable that those of us with children or young family members would feel uncomfortable at the thought of leaving three young teenagers to their fate. Perhaps looking at it this way may help. At the age of 15 and 16 you can't vote, buy alcohol and some employers only take on staff aged 18 over. Considering someone of their age isn't mature enough to do these things, can they really be mature enough to make this kind of decision, where they put themselves at great risk.
While reading other opinions on the subject, one person even suggested the girls hadn't gone to join ISIS. He said maybe they just went for a holiday to Turkey and it went wrong. However unlikely this may see, perhaps anything is possible?
Whatever opinion you may have, it's a sad situation for the families of these girls who have potentially lost them, and this may be something to considering when publicly posting comments they might see.
