Syria is the first real war of cyber-jihad

Some 400 Brits have been to Syria to fight, an estimated 20 have been killed – yet the draw is growing stronger. Last year, the number of arrests relating to Brits joining the jihadi-dominated Syrian was one a fortnight. So far this year, it’s been one every two days. The police’s appeal yesterday for Muslim women to inform on their men who are considering signing up was a sign of desperation – but they’re not sure what else to do. This is the era of cyber-jihad where social media is a massive recruiting sergeant for jihadis, and I look at this in my Telegraph column today.

The idea of indoctrinating young people so they go to fight in a foreign war is not new. It happened during the Spanish civil war – as depicted in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She moulded her girls in her image, and sent one to fight for Franco in Spain – she died (clip from the film above).