Image Credit: Phil Noble/Reuters
Religion + Belief
Three women’s flight from English town to join ISIS prompts renewed soul-searching about radicalization causes in Britain
  • The sisters left the northern town of Bradford with their nine children for a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, but are believed to have traveled to Syria to join the group.
  • Muslims represent around a quarter* of the population in the ethnically diverse working-class town that has encountered a number of economic struggles recently.
  • While PM David Cameron has announced tough crackdowns on those spreading extremist messages–including the closure of mosques–some community advocates find the measures are not combating the root causes of alienation and exclusion from opportunity afflicting the British Muslim community.

“It’s disturbing, because we’ve got young family of our own. We have to keep an eye on them, who they are associating with. At one time we were worried about lads on the street corner selling drugs. Now this is a bigger shock. Where does it end?”

More on this story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Phil Noble/Reuters)

*Corrected (6/20) to accurately reflect the Muslim population proportion in Bradford.