Today's TIMES has an exclusive feature following a comprehensive ten year study by child protection experts of a repeated pattern of sex offending across Northern England and the Midlands. Where groups of older men approach vulnerable girls 11 - 16 on the street and groom them for sex. The girls are almost all white. The men are almost all Muslim Pakistanis.
The grooming usually begins with older groups of men befriending girls aged from 11 to 16 they meet on the street. In a typical scenario, the victim is initially treated as a girlfriend and showered with presents and attention. But the relationship quickly becomes more sinister as the abuser plies the child with drink and drugs before effectively pimping her out to friends and associates.
The worst cases involve young girls being moved around the country to be repeatedly abused.
There have been 56 successful prosecutions since 1997. Fifty three were Asians. Fifty of those were Muslims.
The real story in all of this is that despite this 'Tidal wave' of horrific abuse, the story and action against those involved has been subject to a dreadful prejudice. Fear of offending the Muslim community.
A report by the Derby safeguarding children board in the wake of last years multiple arrests said there should be greater consideration of 'whether the ethnic background and culture of the perpetrators had any bearing on their decision to take part in this activity'.
Does it seem remotely possible that believers in a religion whose prophet famously enjoyed sex with a 9 year old and whose holy book encourages the diminished importance of women through polygamy and the husbandly right to disciplinary spousal violence might in any way make believers more likely to participate in this abusive behavior or not?
If we accept their right to practice Islamic submission in our Non Muslim Country then surely we cannot impose our Non Islamic consideration on their right to properly express the behavioral consequences associated with and arising from this same belief. That would be an infringement on their freedom of religious expression. Surely.
This tale of Islamic influence in our multi-cultural society, of how young girls are harvested straight from the street in those British towns with a high percentage of Muslim population serves as a practical metaphor for what happens next. And talking about it is simply not allowed.
Today's TIMES has an exclusive feature following a comprehensive ten year study by child protection experts of a repeated pattern of sex offending across Northern England and the Midlands. Where groups of older men approach vulnerable girls 11 - 16 on the street and groom them for sex. The girls are almost all white. The men are almost all Muslim Pakistanis.
