Don’t tell us the sob story.
When the caliphate falls and the repercussions eventually catch up with adults who have chosen to enter the Islamic State’s circle, they are unable to reframe themselves as helpless victims.
The kids should be protected. The adults should be looked into and, if there is proof, prosecuted.
This was not an unsuccessful Contiki tour.
The Islamic State was a death cult founded on rape, slavery, murder, and sectarian savagery. These women were aware of this and cooperated.
Adults who chose to be in close proximity to that organization should not have their past indulgently rewritten.
Australians observed the actions of ISIS.
They recall the massacres, sex enslavement, beheadings, and propaganda videos that killed innocent people. It is moral clarity, not bigotry, to refuse to embrace these women with sympathy.
According to Peter Van Onselen, many Australians would not accept attempts to portray adults who voluntarily entered the terror group’s orbit as defenceless victims after witnessing the beheadings, massacres, and sex slavery committed by ISIS.
The kids shouldn’t be left behind, but they also shouldn’t be used as human shields to protect the reputations of the parents who purposefully brought them up in the nightmare of the Islamic State.
Talking incessantly about trauma, context, and reintegration is the soft left impulse. However, what about the suffering of Yazidi women who are held as slaves by ISIS?
These Australians joined a movement that was in charge of it.
Many Australians won’t be satisfied, even if Labour claims it didn’t help them return. The public wants to know why they weren’t kept out for as long as possible using every legal means at their disposal.
Australia should cease acting as though living under a terrorist caliphate was just a difficult life decision, protect the children, and prosecute the adults when the evidence permits it.
