If it is wrong that...

a muslim leaves Britain to fight for the IS, is it equally wrong that a non muslim leaves this country to fight against the IS, also?



A former Royal Marine has become the first Briton to be killed while fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State in Syria, the Kurdish militia has told the BBC.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) named him as Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, from Barnsley.

A British pro-Kurdish activist said he had informed Mr Scurfield's family of the death, at the request of the YPG.

The Foreign Office said it was "aware of reports" of a Briton dying in Syria.

The YPG said the "British volunteer martyr" died in an area west of the city of Qamishli on Monday.

A Kurdish commander said clashes against Islamic State (IS) in that area were continuing.

The BBC's Guney Yildiz said the YPG had asked Mr Scurfield's family if they could bury him in Syria "as a martyr".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31720274

Short answer, no.

It is an entirely different matter. On the one hand are idiots going to join an organisation with a long track record of committing appalling atrocities. On the other hand is someone going to fight against this organisation of murderers.

As Xmiles says, on the face of it, this one's easy - it's a no.

IS are a proscribed organisation and so anybody professing to support them should be banned from travelling abroad to join them - simples.

And by the same token, if IS are the "bad guys", anybody openly stating that they want to help in the fight against their insidious spread must surely be applauded and allowed to go over there and get on with it, surely?

Bit like The International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.

But it's all a bit moot in my opinion because nobody's going to rock up at Heathrow in full battle dress and say: "Hello, I'm off to Turkey so that I can sneak into Syria and join the fighting" are they, so I don't know how it can be policed.

If somebody's on an MI5 watch list for associating with dodgy types over here and the government step in and take their passport away, they'll just obtain another one and go anyway.

And it opens another can of worms - Human rights.

After 9/11 the Yanks brought in The Patriot Act, supposedly to protect the good people of 'Murica but all it really did was grant the government unprecedented powers to stop and detain their own citizens without trial.

Is that a road we really want to be going down over here?

I don't think so.

xmiles wrote:Short answer, no.

It is an entirely different matter. On the one hand are idiots going to join an organisation with a long track record of committing appalling atrocities. On the other hand is someone going to fight against this organisation of murderers.

The Kurds are defending themselves against oppression so the simple answer is no.

Sluffy wrote:a muslim leaves Britain to fight for the IS, is it equally wrong that a non muslim leaves this country to fight against the IS, also?

The way you phrase this is unnecessarily loaded Sluffy.

Surely the question should be "if a Brit goes to fight for IS is it equally wrong for a Brit to fight against them?"

Not sure what the religion of the Brits has to do with it - especially in this case as the Brit in question is ostensibly defending a Muslim majority population so his motives are unlikely to be "religious". He may well be British of Kurdish descent and possibly Muslim himself.

Thankfully, these Brits who are drawn to one side or the other are conducting their battles abroad and not on the streets of the UK.

You're reading too much into what I wrote Lusty.

My simple point being that one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.

Should both pro AND anti IS fighters be stopped from joining up or not?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2978890/ISIS-barbarians-throw-gay-man-building-bloodthirsty-crowds-Syria.html

bit of a grey area tbh, I don't personally condone people going out there to fight for or against IS. 

but when you see things such as the above article I can see why soldiers feel compelled to fight them.