Today there are reports about a Briton who was so enraged by events that he went to fight in Syria has been killed.
He allied himself with groups many consider to be terrorists.
However, most news reports will be sympathetic to his case for he was not Muslim.
His case will be shown more nuance than for Muslims who may return or die in Syria - who may have even been fighting against the same group!
Many of them will also have been fighting against terrorism and barbarity - the top two groups responsible are probably Assad's forces followed by ISIS. The barbarity of Assad's forces is probably an order of magnitude greater than all the other groups combined.
But now that we have the bogeyman of ISIS, Assad's crimes are forgotten and no longer worthy of being reported.
From those that return, those that have committed a crime should be punished. If they have murdered, they should be charged with murder. If they have tortured or terrorised, they should be charged with such crimes.
However from the current government, I cannot see any distinction between those who have committed a crime and those that havent.
On a related but separate issue, the people of Syria are suffering and it seems that the rest of the world has a hand in extending a helping hand - not to the people, but to extend the suffering through geopolitical games.
Comments
I can understand your comments and where you are coming from. But there are three types of people who go to Syria or Northern Iraq.
1] Those who go openly, to give humanitarian aid. These can be both Muslim, Christian or indeed a mix of both. These usually have no trouble on their return to the UK.
2] Those who go secretly, to aid ISIS. These want to aid ISIS in their imposition of their version of Islam in Syria, or Northern Iraq. Indeed on their return wish to impose their version of Islam in Europe.
3] Those who go secretly, to aid the Kurds. Seeing them as the underdog. To use their skills to help stop what ISIS is doing to both Muslims and Christians. On their return to Europe, if they wish to aid people who are victims of aggression, from whatever source, as in Northern Iraq. Would they be a danger to society?
If you try to put yourself in the shoes of people in government and/or the legal system. Who have two main responsibilities. a] See that people are treated equally, but also b] Ensure the safety and well being of the citizens.
Now ask your self the questions. Do the people in these groups [1] Do they present a risk to society at large? [2] If they are free to go back to their original communities, will they a] influence other people with their ideas and b] try to put these ideas into practice.
Now the difficult question. Who do you restrain for public safety and who do you allow to walk free?
The number 3 ignored that the YPG are allied with and often form part of the PKK which is a terrorist organisation.
There is also a number 4:
4) Those who go secretly, to aid the Syrians. Seeing them as the underdog. To use their skills to help stop what Assadis doing to both Muslims and Christians. On their return to Europe, if they wish to aid people who are victims of aggression, from whatever source, as in Northern Iraq. Would they be a danger to society?
There is this news of a 6 year conviction for attempting to go to Syria. He claimed he was joining the fight against ISIS. His brother had previously gone to Syria. I am sure we could find out which group his brother had joined...
... and all this ignored that ISIS is relatively recent. The chaos in Syria started in 2011 when Assad started killing his people to instill fear. When ISIS arrived, it was driven out by the other rebel groups and looked to be defeated until it returned with modern American weaponry taken from Mosul.
Syria today is a quagmire with multiple groups with multiple alliances and no one should go and this fella was excessively stupid by ignoring his obligations to his wife and unborn child.
I do not think the government or the prosecutors or judges are applying the same level of (or any) nuance to Muslims compared to non Muslims.
This has always been the case (I am reminded of the case of a girl writing poetry on the back of reciepts being convicted of terrorism), but has become much worse under the tories
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
I acept there is a Number 4 and probably 5, 6, or even more. Also as you say Syria etc is a quagmire of various groups with different agendas. Both home grown and from outside the area.
The problem is how do we resolve the situation? Do we simply walk away and leave all sides to sort themselves out? I don't have a clue, that's the problem, even our Leaders after getting us into this position now don't really know what to do.
Maybe if we had stuck to the original UN rule, which is not to get into other countries internal politics? There as been many countries with much worse Dictators then Sadaam, Ghadafi and Assad and they have been left to get on with things. But then we have the Power, Politics and Commerce to cloud the issues.
In the above statement you are probably correct, but frightened people tend to see dangers were there are no dangers. Then Law and Justice take second place, when the need to be seen to be taking firm action on what appears to be a threat to mainstream western values.
Libya, as well as Syria is in turmoil, [Public protest failed to keep us out of Libya, but did succeed in Syria] so things could have been much, much worse. The EU in particular as seen a mass influx of displaced people from these areas of conflict. Some of these people are genuine refugee's from war zones and some are simply economic migrants just taking a chance. How do we tell one from the other?
Then to make things worse, the hard-line opposition in Libya are threatening to force over 500,000 people to flee to the EU this coming summer, also to include within their numbers up to 5% militant extremists
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/isis-plans-to-use-immigra...
http://time.com/3720076/isis-europe-migrants/
As i said before, frightened people can make bad decisions if they feel threatened. It is going to be a long difficult year all round for everyone.