How Did 'Good Girls' From Colorado Get Recruited By ISIS?

[Coyote]

They range from 15, 16, 17 - not an age group that tends to make good or smart decisions. They're of a generation that is constantly plugged in to the media but lack the skill set to critically examine insiduous propaganda. I can only imagine how afraid parents must be for their children and how difficult it is to control their children's exposure to this sort of thing in today's world. Fortunately these girls were stopped in Germany before they could get to the point of no return.



How Did Good Girls From Colorado Get Recruited By ISIS NPR

Three teenage girls from the Denver area apparently tried to join the so-called Islamic State. The girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, were reported missing by their parents on Friday. They were later stopped in Germany at the Frankfurt airport en route to Turkey. For more details, Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee joins us now. And Megan, walk us through the timeline of events here.

...
MEGAN VERLEE, BYLINE: Well, Robert, this started last Friday when the girls - they're two sisters and a friend - left the Denver area on a flight to Europe. And that night, their parents filed a missing persons report with local authorities and, at the time, it was treated as a fairly normal runaway case. When the girls arrived in Frankfurt that weekend, they were - or this past weekend - they were detained by German officials, who had been alerted to them by the U.S. according to the German Interior Ministry. And not too long after that, they were on a flight home to Colorado. Once the girls got back here, they did have some contact with the FBI, although the FBI is not saying what kind and they were returned to their parents.

SIEGEL: And what have you learned about these three young women?

VERLEE: Well, the sisters in this case are of Somali descent. Their friend is Sudanese. And as we've said before, they're aged 15, 16 and 17. They're all high school students. These young women did not tell their parents about their plans, but they did let their classmates know via Twitter about what they were doing, and some of those classmates actually went to school officials because they were quite worried. I spoke with Tustin Amole, who's a spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District where those girls attend high school, and she had this to say.

TUSTIN AMOLE: These are good girls. We've never had a history of issues with them. We've never seen indication of any propensity for violence.

VERLEE: As far as the school district is concerned, they seem to be treating these girls as victims. The spokesperson went on to describe the possibility that they might've been lured into this by what Amole describes as online predators.

 

[Valerie]

"the sisters in this case are of Somali descent. Their friend is Sudanese.
And as we've said before, they're aged 15, 16 and 17."


misguided kids!

 

[Dogmaphobe]

The article didn't even begin to discuss WHY.

Why does anybody join a cult? People join cults because they lack self-esteem, are looking for identity, and have a psychological need for structure in their lives.

When you add in the undercurrents of a culture-wide sense of white guilt and the inability to derive a sense of belonging from it, and the fact that dishonest propagandists have been so relentless in trying to create the impression that rejecting the tenets of an anti-humanist political-religious ideology is the stuff of racism, and there are plenty of explanations for these girls behavior.

Heck, what better way to prove they aren't one of those "Islamophobes", anyway?

 

[Delta4Embassy]

They range from 15, 16, 17 - not an age group that tends to make good or smart decisions. They're of a generation that is constantly plugged in to the media but lack the skill set to critically examine insiduous propaganda. I can only imagine how afraid parents must be for their children and how difficult it is to control their children's exposure to this sort of thing in today's world. Fortunately these girls were stopped in Germany before they could get to the point of no return.



How Did Good Girls From Colorado Get Recruited By ISIS NPR

Three teenage girls from the Denver area apparently tried to join the so-called Islamic State. The girls, ages 15, 16 and 17, were reported missing by their parents on Friday. They were later stopped in Germany at the Frankfurt airport en route to Turkey. For more details, Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee joins us now. And Megan, walk us through the timeline of events here.

...
MEGAN VERLEE, BYLINE: Well, Robert, this started last Friday when the girls - they're two sisters and a friend - left the Denver area on a flight to Europe. And that night, their parents filed a missing persons report with local authorities and, at the time, it was treated as a fairly normal runaway case. When the girls arrived in Frankfurt that weekend, they were - or this past weekend - they were detained by German officials, who had been alerted to them by the U.S. according to the German Interior Ministry. And not too long after that, they were on a flight home to Colorado. Once the girls got back here, they did have some contact with the FBI, although the FBI is not saying what kind and they were returned to their parents.

SIEGEL: And what have you learned about these three young women?

VERLEE: Well, the sisters in this case are of Somali descent. Their friend is Sudanese. And as we've said before, they're aged 15, 16 and 17. They're all high school students. These young women did not tell their parents about their plans, but they did let their classmates know via Twitter about what they were doing, and some of those classmates actually went to school officials because they were quite worried. I spoke with Tustin Amole, who's a spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District where those girls attend high school, and she had this to say.

TUSTIN AMOLE: These are good girls. We've never had a history of issues with them. We've never seen indication of any propensity for violence.

VERLEE: As far as the school district is concerned, they seem to be treating these girls as victims. The spokesperson went on to describe the possibility that they might've been lured into this by what Amole describes as online predators.

Scary enough. But if 15-17 year-olds make bad decisions like trying to join ISIS, why are we ok with their driving? Should raise the driving age to 21. Kids don't need cars.

 

[The Professor]

How Did 'Good Girls' From Colorado Get Recruited By ISIS?

This would make a great category for Dave Letterman's top 10.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

To the OP, I'd start with saying if they tried joining ISIS then they weren't the good girls they're described as. Good people don't join murderous cults. This isn't a cult in the traditional sense that portrayed itself as warm and fuzzy suckering people in. Everybody knows what's up with ISIS, so anyone seeking to get in to it is not a nice person but more accurately described as clinical psychopath.

I can think of many reasons disenfranchised teenaged girls would seek to join such a cult. Way we infantilize people even into adulthood comes quickly to mind. Imagine ISIS treats them as able-bodied adults unlike parents and society. If everyone says "no," "stop," "don't do that" in your life and suddenly along comes someone who says you can do whatever you want (within whatever framework they operate under.) The appeal isn't hard to see.

Joining ISIS then is the modern murderous version of running away to join the circus.

 

[Coyote]

ISIS is very very successful with sophisticated propaganda specifically targeted at young people. That's part of the problem. Kids that age don't have good judgement and unlike a "circus"...this decision could ruin their lives or end in enslavemt and death. If they are acting as online "predators" then they can target young people, get a handle on their insecurities, or fears and exploit them.