Plan B Forum

The families of the London schoolgirls who ran away to Syria to join Islamic State have spoken of their anger towards police for failing to warn them that their daughters were in danger of being radicalised.

Amira Abase and Shamima Begum, both 15, and 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana boarded a Turkish Airlines flight from Gatwick to Istanbul on February 17 and police believe the trio have now crossed the Turkish border into Syria.

Amira's father, Abase Hussein, wept as he told ITV News a police letter warning of the threat should have been sent straight to the families.

Instead it was given to the girls by their school to take home. They hid it in their textbooks while plotting their escape to Syria.

Relatives believe the girls would still be in the UK if they had received the letter.

We wouldn't have been here today doing this if we'd got that letter and known what was going on.
– HALIMA KHANOM, SISTER OF KADIZA SULTANA

We would have spoken to them, sat them down. We would have spoken to the school.
– FAHMIDA AZIZ, COUSIN OF KADIZA SULTANA

If we knew this wouldn't have happened. We would have stopped them. We would have discussed it and taken away their passports from them. This wouldn't have happened.
– ABASE HUSSEIN, FATHER OF AMIRA ABASE

The Metropolitan Police Service has been engaged with staff at the girls' school since December 2014 as part of the routine inquiry by officers investigating the disappearance of their friend.

There was nothing to suggest at the time that the girls themselves were at risk and indeed their disappearance has come as a great surprise, not least to their own families.

The girls were spoken to in December 2014 as part of the routine inquiry by officers investigating the disappearance of their friend.

We continue to liaise with the school and local education authority in connection with this ongoing investigation.

– METROPOLITAN POLICE

Amira's father, Abase Hussein, wept as he told ITV News a police letter warning of the threat should have been sent straight to the families.

Instead it was given to the girls by their school to take home. They hid it in their textbooks while plotting their escape to Syria.

rather than, in effect, trusting the girls to warn their parents about themselves.

Econoline wrote:Maybe the letter itself was expecting too much, but if you're going to send it at all, send it in a way such that it's likely to be received and read by the intended recipients.

The letter from Scotland Yard is dated 2 February, and was handed to the girls three days later. A detective wrote: “I understand your daughter may have known [the missing 15-year-old] as a friend. It is my role to understand [the missing girl] better and the reasons why she has decided to leave this country.

“I am trying to gather information which may help to find her and reunite her with her family. This will help the police and partner agencies to understand and prevent other vulnerable teenagers from disappearing. For these reasons I seek your permission to speak to your daughter.”

“I would like a handwritten statement … and this will cover [the missing girl] and her religious beliefs, lifestyle and the circumstances just before [the girl] left the UK. Please be reassured that I am not investigating your own daughter and they are not under any suspicion of doing something wrong. I am simply after her help. With the school’s permission I have introduced myself to your child and explained the above reasons why I need their help.”

It ends by offering a visit in person by the detective and his contact details. Police do not appear to have made further inquiries after they heard nothing from the families of the three girls. The families say the school told them the letter was handed out at a session where seven pupils were gathered together.

these parents were so totally dim they did not already know about the other girl vanishing? It was public information. They didn't know the fuzz had been cruising the school? Apparently it was no secret. They weren't talking to their own children about how such a thing could happen and what the nice bluebottles were saying?

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Yeah my kids did lots of stuff I didn't know about - but I sure caught them every time it was something truly significant.

bigskygal wrote:

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Yeah my kids did lots of stuff I didn't know about - but I sure caught them every time it was something truly significant.

*Snert*

Suuuuuuuuure you did . . .

Well, I guess you could define "truly significant" as "a big enough deal that it would have resulted in a call from the police ".

His face twisted in fury, Abase Hussen punches his fist into the air and launches into an Islamic war cry.



‘Burn, burn USA,’ he yells from his prime spot at the front of one of the most notorious rallies in recent times. Once the crowd is whipped into a fever, an American flag is set on fire and held aloft by a fanatic. Video footage shows Mr Hussen desperately trying to hold the burning flag as the chanting behind him intensifies.

He manages to grab the flag briefly before being forced to drop it because of the power of the smoke and flames. As the remainder of the flag burns on the ground, Mr Hussen chants ‘Allahu Akbar’. He pushes the palm of his hand repeatedly toward the embers, rejoicing at the destruction of the stars and stripes. Mr Hussen – the father of one of the three schoolgirls who fled Britain to join Islamic State – then turns his attention to a burning Israeli flag on the floor and begins to chant and gesture toward it.



He is one of a dozen fanatics standing behind a banner which proclaims: ‘The followers of Mohammed will conquer America.’ Behind him, hundreds of fanatics repeatedly chant incendiary slogans while holding menacing black jihadi flags. Among the rabble-rousers was notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who has led a number of Islamist groups that were subsequently banned. Alongside him stood Michael Adebowale, one of the two Muslim converts who murdered and almost beheaded Fusilier Lee Rigby in the name of Allah eight months later.

But last month Mr Hussen gave evidence to Parliament refusing to accept any responsibility for the three schoolgirls’ actions, instead seeking to blame the police, teachers, Turkish officials and others. In an extraordinary exchange at the home affairs select committee, Mr Hussen, who was with the families of the other two girls, denied even knowing what Islamic radicalisation was. ‘As for me, I don’t know the symptoms even — what radicalisation is,’ he told MPs. Mr Hussen also repeatedly blasted the Metropolitan Police for handing a letter to his daughter requesting parental permission to speak to the girls about a friend who had earlier travelled to Syria. He said police officers should have given it directly to the families.

Anyone still got any sympathy for him?