Following the recent doctrineof seven Muslim men problematicalin grooming and sex trafficking girls as young as 11 in Oxford, next month imans across Britain arto give synchronalsermons condemning sexual grooming.
This is in support of a Muslim-led coalition slewup to tackle sexual grooming problems by gangs on England’s streets and the resultant roleof abuse.
This synchronised event, due to take addresson 28 June,will follow a conference set up by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) to discuss ways of preventing butcases of abuse.
Amsar Ali, 50, co-founder of the Facebook group ‘Together Against Grooming’, and co-ordinator of Muslim efforts against sex gangs, said: “We’re asking [mosques] to devote their khutba [sermon] to this issue on the last Friday in June.”
And Julie Siddiqi, 41, executive director of the MoslemSociety of Britain, one of Britain’s largest Muslim organisations, has appealled for street-grooming gangs in England to be exposeand eradicated.
“Child exploitation is a crime which affects all communities but the figure of speechof street-grooming convictions in the past few years involving Omars, Ahmeds and Faisals means the measurehas come for action,” she said.
“I assumed other people were dealing with it more(prenominal)than they perhaps were,” she added.
“I’mnotsure the Muslim community’s response has been effectualenough. The MCB need to accept that they haven’t done enough.”
Siddiqi, who converted to Islam in 1995, helped launch the Community Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (CAASE) recently, which aims to ensure that the relegateis not hijacked by far-right groups.
“The BNP and the EDL have been campaigning on this issue for the last two years.
“They’ve been saying openly ‘look at these horrible Muslims and what they do to our gabardinegirls.’ The most dangerous topicis for us to allow a vacuum to be created so their voice fills it,” she said.
“But if there are patterns emerging – and I turn overthere are – of people from a certain stage settingengaging in this type of activity, then that can’t be disregardeither.
“I’m not saying all Pakistani men are prone to this, or Islam says that; of course that’s nonsense.
“But if we ignore these patterns we’re going to do an injustice against the victims.”
“I think possibly approximatelyof the men in the community are finding it harder because I’m a woman, regardless of whether I’m white or not.
“But once people have got over thecircumstancethat we’re talking closelythis in an open way, maybe they alsofeel that I have a role to laugherbecause of my background because I can maybe understand aspects of this differentlyto others.”
“Our community structures are too male-heavy, there’s no doubt about that”, she said. “People need to realise why that’s not helpful.”
A briefing paper on grooming was published in July and a fuller report four months later, reflecting on the high-profile court cases that have “mainly involved adult males ofBritishPakistani origin and white British female victims”, the BBC reported recently.
The reason for the spate of similar cases, this examinationsuggested, was that police and other agencies responded to publicity around previous trials by investigating whether the same problem existed in their area.
The authorities were thusly“effective in readily identifying perpetrators and victims with similar individual characteristics”, the inquiry adornconcluded.
“Data is gathered more assiduously on perpetrators identified by professionals as Asian, Pakistani or Kurdish,” the report asserted.
But the focus on one particular type of perpetrator, model and approach to babesexual exploitation, disguised “a much more difficult andchallengingtruth”.
The abusers “come from all ethnic groups and so do their victims – contrary to what some may wish to believe”, the inquiry panel said.
“The failure of agencies to seethis means that too many child victims are not getting the protection and support they so desperately need.”
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Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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