What Happens When Western Teenage Girls Join Jihad
Austrian teenagers, 16-year-old Samra Kesinovic and 14-year-old Sabina Selimovic, wanted to become jihadis in Syria. They did last year. But one of them is already a jihadi victim, although they were recruited as poster girls, according to ijreview.
Samra and Sasha had disappeared a year ago. Their pictures of themselves with Kalashnikov automatic weapons are up on the Net. They are fringed by ISIS jihadis, who were glad to take them to become attractive ad models of the Islamic State. However, you can see that such girls don't seem to live for long. Alexander Marakovits, spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, told The Salzburger News: 'We also have this information and have checked it, but cannot say with absolute certainty that it is true." The parents, though, have been informed about the tragic death.
The worrying trend of girls from the non-IS state joining Syria is growing and expanding. At least three young Minnesota women have also traveled to Syria to support the ISIS terror group, according to Mail Online. They left three weeks ago, said Omar Jamal, a leader of the Somali community in the state capital, St. Paul. They wanted to become nurses to help the injured in ISIS' violent clashes in Iraq and Syria.
In the Minnesota, 19-year-old was reported by her family, which contacted the FBI. But it is believed that two more girls have gone to the Middle East. The FBI has subpoenaed the 19-year-old girl's family to give evidence before a Grand Jury at the end of this month. Authorities are trying to find out how she got her ticket, her money and fake passport. The family may not be under criminal investigation. But the FBI is searching for more information from the family. Included in the subpoena is a demand for cell phone records, as the girl had put through some calls to her brother from Turkey and later Syria.
It is not clear why there are so many youngsters shifting loyalties, but some experts feel that there are many immigrants from Somalia, for instance, who are unable to absorb into the western lifestyle and find an alternative lifestyle at Syria offering them more lucrative and prosperous futures. Many of the teenagers also did not have fathers, who would have got killed in war. The state seems to offer an attractive "father figure".
Meanwhile, the French police have arrested six teenagers, including two minors, in Lyon, who were found recruiting girls to join Syria. The police found Kalashnikovs, gas masks, flashlights and ammunition. One of the arrested was found to have links with the Islamist group Forsane Alizza or Knights of Pride, which called for France to become an Islamic caliphate. It was banned in 2012.