David Cameron has urged schools to help stop the radicalisation of the young and end pupils joining ISIS’s “death cult”.
It comes as police try to trace the three missing teenagers who are believed to have fled to Syria to join the Islamic terrorists.
The Prime Minister yesterday described the disappearance of Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and an un-named 15-year-old as “deeply concerning”.
He said: “The fight against Islamist extremist terror is not just one that we can wage by the police and border control.
“It needs every school, every university, every college, every community to recognise they have a role to play.
“We all have a role to play in stopping people from having their minds poisoned by this appalling death cult.”
The girls, who are from east London and attended Bethnal Green Academy, flew to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport on Tuesday without leaving any messages behind, police said.
Last night the family of one of the girls pleaded with her to come home.
Shamima Begum’s relatives said: “Syria is a dangerous place and we don’t want you to go there.”
The missing straight-A students are good friends with another 15-year-old girl who attended the school and fled to Syria in December.
Scotland Yard has revealed the girls were spoken to in December by officers investigating their friend’s disappearance.
Officials have said there was “nothing to suggest at the time” that the girls were at risk and their disappearance has “come as a great surprise, not least to their own families”.
Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter- terror command, said the girls’ families were “devastated” but there was a “good chance” they were still in Turkey after snow storms brought travel disruption to Istanbul.
He added that the force had been “increasingly concerned” by a growing trend of young girls showing an interest in joining ISIS.
The organisation is notorious for its barbaric treatment of hostages and oppression of women.
Salman Farsi, a spokesman for the East London Mosque close to where the girls lived, said: “I do not know what was told to them but if they do go to Syria, it is a war zone and there are serious ramifications for going into a war zone.”
The girls’ MP Rushanara Ali, said there was “very deep concern” in the community at the way young people were being radicalised.
She said: “One of the things that we have got to do as a country is to make sure that schools and teachers and parents who are concerned get advice and help.
“We need to make sure that we counter these ideologies. This is like grooming, this is child exploitation, and in the worst-case scenario they are potentially being used as weapons of war in those countries.”
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The idea of 15-year-old British schoolgirls setting off to Syria is very disturbing, and shows that more action is urgently needed to stop young people being drawn into extremism and conflict, and to help families and communities who are trying to counteract extremist recruitment messages.”
It has also emerged that Glasgow student Aqsa Mahmood has been in contact with one of the girls, Shamima.
In 2013, Mahmood dropped out of a university course and travelled to Syria where she reportedly married an ISIS fighter.
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