This is a sickening story.
British girls as young as 14 are being helped to marry Islamic State fighters in Syria in increasing numbers by London-based “facilitators”.
Teenagers wanting to become ‘Jihadi brides’ are being assisted with applying for passports, given funding and sometimes even accompanied to the region after being groomed online.
Ew. What a golden opportunity – marry a murderer and give up all your rights for the sake of the bright lights of IS-held Syria.
Pockets of east London in particular are becoming hotbeds for organised groups of men and women helping young IS supporters to get to the Syrian conflict zone, the Evening Standard reported.
Haras Rafiq, an expert at British counter-terrorism think-tank, the Quilliam Foundation, says the organisation is “aware” of groups working across London but particularly in the east of the capital.
He said: “The average age is being reduced. Some of the girls getting out there are only 14.
Ew ew ew.
Mr Rafiq said the attraction for these girls is escaping their “regressive” home lives.
He added the roles this girls play once in IS are primarily domestic. But Mr Rafiq added they are also given the job of acting as the “morality police” and attend radicalisation classes where they learn how to “brainwash” potential new recruits online.
The warning comes after a girl of 15 was rescued from joining the conflict in Syria after Met counter-terrorism officers stopped the plane she was on as it was taxiing down the runway at Heathrow.
Fifteen. I remember how ignorant and clueless I was at fifteen. Fifteen.
A minimum of five people a week are evading the authorities and going out to IS, according to Met chief Bernard Hogan-Howe and it is estimated around 1,500 Brits may have been recruited to fight in Iraq and Syria.
The Times said one of its investigators posing as Aisha, a 17-year-old from east London, was offered cash and assistance after making contact with a hardline jihadist in Syria on Twitter.
He sent an image of himself outside the Islamic Court in the Isil stronghold of Raqqa, northern Syria, in which he is clutching a rifle and holding a handwritten message bearing the name from her Twitter profile.
So romantic.