ISIS 'is using British female extremists to incite UK terror attacks' amid fears pupils are still at risk of being radicalised in schools
ISIS 'is using British female extremists to incite UK terror attacks' amid fears pupils are still at risk of being radicalised in schools, ISIS is using British female extremists to incite UK terror attacks, according to researchers, as fears are raised that pupils are still at risk of being radicalised in schools.
Experts at King's College London say they have identified a group of around 30 British women in northern Syria, who are encouraging others to launch terrorist attacks in the UK.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) has studied the social media accounts of female jihadis, and has found that instead of supporting their male counterparts, many are actively helping to recruit would-be extremists, often encouraging them to carry out atrocities in the UK.
Details of the study comes as Britain and the rest of Europe remain on high alert following the shootings in Paris earlier this month.
Authorities are still hunting Hayat Boumeddiene, the wife of kosher supermarket killer Amedy Coulibaly, who is thought to have fled to Syria to join up with Islamic State fighters.
She is suspected of helping plan the Paris attacks, but had left France before the Kouachi brothers – Cherif, 32, and Said, 34, opened fire on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, arriving in Istanbul on January 2.
Around 50 British women and girls are thought to have joined ISIS, with the majority based in the jihadist's stronghold Raqqa and aged between 16 and 24.
Among them are 16-year-old twins Salma and Zahra Halane who fled their home in Chorlton, Manchester, to follow their brother to Syria - where it is believed they have married IS fighters.
Former public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, is known to have been in Raqqa helping to organise religious patrols.
It has previously been thought that women have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS ranks as wives, but ICSR's findings suggest they are playing a more active role.
ICSR research fellow Melanie Smith, who heads the first known database of female foreign fighters, told The Observer 's Mark Townsend and Toby Helm: 'British women tend to incite [attacks], they say to people that can’t move to the Islamic State: "Why not carry out something at home?"
'That’s a common message: if you can’t leave your family behind or afford to move to Syria then carry out something.'
School inspectors are also expected to warn that children are still at risk from Islamic extremism, despite a crack down in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal.
Four separate investigations were conducted last year into allegations in Birmingham, which were originally sparked by the 'Trojan Horse' letter - now widely believed to be a hoax - that referred to an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to seize control of a number of school governing boards in the city.
In June, Ofsted issued a damning verdict on the running of a number of Birmingham's schools and declared five failing, placing them into special measures.
These schools were Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School and Park View Academy - all run by the Park View Educational Trust (PVET) - as well as Oldknow Academy and Saltley School.
In an update published in September, Ofsted said that these schools had not improved, with chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw saying that 'very little action' had been taken to address the serious concerns raised about each school's performance, amid slow progress in appointing new governors and senior leaders.
Sir Michael is expected to warn a meeting of the education select committee later this month that he is still 'very concerned' about a continued risk of extremism in schools, Whitehall sources told The Sunday Times's Sian Griffiths.
Nearly half of the 4,000 referrals to the Government's Channel programme, which aims to target children and adults who are vulnerable to radicalisation before they become terrorists, have reportedly been under 18.
Some have these have been as a result of teachers cracking down on pupils feared to be at risk of fleeing the UK to fight in Syria.
One headteacher said four children at her north London school had been reported to the Prevent programme, of which Channel is a part, including a 16-year-old girl who wanted to fundraise for ISIS, and a 15-year-old boy who had made a 'throwaway' comment about fighting in Syria.
Experts at King's College London say they have identified a group of around 30 British women in northern Syria, who are encouraging others to launch terrorist attacks in the UK.
The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) has studied the social media accounts of female jihadis, and has found that instead of supporting their male counterparts, many are actively helping to recruit would-be extremists, often encouraging them to carry out atrocities in the UK.
Details of the study comes as Britain and the rest of Europe remain on high alert following the shootings in Paris earlier this month.
Authorities are still hunting Hayat Boumeddiene, the wife of kosher supermarket killer Amedy Coulibaly, who is thought to have fled to Syria to join up with Islamic State fighters.
She is suspected of helping plan the Paris attacks, but had left France before the Kouachi brothers – Cherif, 32, and Said, 34, opened fire on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, arriving in Istanbul on January 2.
Around 50 British women and girls are thought to have joined ISIS, with the majority based in the jihadist's stronghold Raqqa and aged between 16 and 24.
Among them are 16-year-old twins Salma and Zahra Halane who fled their home in Chorlton, Manchester, to follow their brother to Syria - where it is believed they have married IS fighters.
Former public schoolgirl Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, is known to have been in Raqqa helping to organise religious patrols.
It has previously been thought that women have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS ranks as wives, but ICSR's findings suggest they are playing a more active role.
ICSR research fellow Melanie Smith, who heads the first known database of female foreign fighters, told The Observer 's Mark Townsend and Toby Helm: 'British women tend to incite [attacks], they say to people that can’t move to the Islamic State: "Why not carry out something at home?"
'That’s a common message: if you can’t leave your family behind or afford to move to Syria then carry out something.'
School inspectors are also expected to warn that children are still at risk from Islamic extremism, despite a crack down in the wake of the Trojan Horse scandal.
Four separate investigations were conducted last year into allegations in Birmingham, which were originally sparked by the 'Trojan Horse' letter - now widely believed to be a hoax - that referred to an alleged plot by hardline Muslims to seize control of a number of school governing boards in the city.
In June, Ofsted issued a damning verdict on the running of a number of Birmingham's schools and declared five failing, placing them into special measures.
These schools were Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School and Park View Academy - all run by the Park View Educational Trust (PVET) - as well as Oldknow Academy and Saltley School.
In an update published in September, Ofsted said that these schools had not improved, with chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw saying that 'very little action' had been taken to address the serious concerns raised about each school's performance, amid slow progress in appointing new governors and senior leaders.
Sir Michael is expected to warn a meeting of the education select committee later this month that he is still 'very concerned' about a continued risk of extremism in schools, Whitehall sources told The Sunday Times's Sian Griffiths.
Nearly half of the 4,000 referrals to the Government's Channel programme, which aims to target children and adults who are vulnerable to radicalisation before they become terrorists, have reportedly been under 18.
Some have these have been as a result of teachers cracking down on pupils feared to be at risk of fleeing the UK to fight in Syria.
One headteacher said four children at her north London school had been reported to the Prevent programme, of which Channel is a part, including a 16-year-old girl who wanted to fundraise for ISIS, and a 15-year-old boy who had made a 'throwaway' comment about fighting in Syria.
0 comments:
Post a Comment