The Hindus, Sikhs as well as diasporic Christian communities are protesting against the use of the blanket term 'Asian' to describe the perpetrators in horrific sex grooming crimes, especially in Telford. The incident saw many young girls exploited and some even killed. The diaspora has objected to the use of the 'Asian' description, especially after publication of a story in Mirror on 11 March 2018 under the headline “Britain's worst ever child grooming scandal exposed: Hundreds of young girls raped, beaten, sold for sex and some even killed.” Asian is a very broad term and includes many nationalities, most who have had no connection with the grooming cases reported.
National Council of Hindu Temples in UK (NCHTUK) in a statement objected to the Mirror's depiction and wrote, that the description defames all Indians, Chinese, Vietnamese etc and contributes towards the increasing incidence of hate crimes against the entirely innocent ethnicities and communities.
In a statement they told AV, “This sustained and consistent trend for the media to use the word 'Asian' whenever there is a 'grooming gang' incident is recognisable as an act of harassment against British Asians. It is a deliberate attempt to associate 'grooming gangs' with 'All Asians' in the minds of the non-Asian British public and in terms of the scale of this act of harassment, it is being inflicted upon and harms all British Asians, numbering in the millions of British citizens.”
“We wholeheartedly support the complaint to IPSO made by the NSO (Network of Sikh Organisations) on the inappropriate use of the word 'Asian' in the Mirror's story. This is something we have been seeing in the British press for some time and have found it utterly objectionable. Hindu girls, like Sikh and white girls, have also suffered at the hands of sexual grooming gangs for decades and if there is an identifiable commonality or ideology connecting these “grooming gangs”, the free press must not abdicate its responsibility to fully report facts including the complete identity of those perpetrating these crimes.”
They added, “The print media has a responsibility to be clear in language, and 'Asian' only serves to smear wholly innocent communities, whilst shielding those responsible. We sincerely hope that IPSO will accept our objections and uphold our, and the NSO's complaint and in so doing protect the wider wholly innocent British Asian communities from further defamation. This will set a much needed precedent.”
The Network of Sikh organisations is also of the same opinion. In a statement they said: “The term ‘Asian’ continues to be regrettably used as a euphemism, when it comes to the identity of those convicted in the majority of Britain’s sexual grooming cases. The report in the Mirror last Sunday focusing in on Telford, rightly describes this horrifying issue as an ‘epidemic’. Whilst we are indebted to the investigative journalists behind this important report, the continuing smearing of ‘Asians’ per se is appalling, as the term encompasses swathes of communities from across the Indian subcontinent. This cowardly non-specific description of the perpetrators continues to be used in the British press, to describe men of predominantly Pakistani Muslim heritage convicted in grooming gang cases. We believe this is in part due to the fear of offending Muslims.
“The media’s reluctance to describe perpetrators of these despicable crimes with clear and honest language, has elicited angry responses from Sikhs and Hindus, who’ve contacted us to express their outrage following the Mirror’s article. It has upset Pakistani Christians too. To put it frankly, the word ‘Asian’ gives the false impression gangs of Indian, Thai, Japanese or Korean men are rampaging across Britain sexually abusing underage white girls on an industrial scale. Is that fair? We suggest that this vague terminology isn’t only an insult, smearing innocent communities, but also serves to mask the fact that girls from Hindu and Sikh communities have historically fallen foul of grooming gangs themselves. The common denominator in such cases is the deliberate targeting of non-Muslim girls, which we believe should be categorized by the police as a hate crime.
“Although we applaud the bravery of Nick Sommerlad and Geraldine McKelvie for their excellent journalism in the Mirror’s report, the NSO has reluctantly chosen to file a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), because of the liberal use of the word ‘Asian’ in the article to describe the identity of the offenders. Given the importance of their work, we did not take this decision lightly. However, we believe use of the word ‘Asian’ to describe sexual grooming by men of predominantly Pakistani Muslim heritage, whilst being both irresponsible and inaccurate, masks the real identity of those perpetrating these heinous crimes.”
