Political correctness appears to be the new ethics of journalism as opposed to calling a spade a spade. Perhaps, the latest disclosure made a senior officer in the Rotherham child exploitation investigation gives credence to the above opinion.
The chief inspector has revealed that his force had ignored the sexual abuse of girls by Pakistani grooming gangs for decades because they were afraid of increasing “racial tensions”. The leaked report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct states that the South Yorkshire police were wary of acting against a group of Asian men who were sexually abusing a young girl for fear of triggering racial tensions in the community.
It must be noted that The Times first exposed this story around sexual exploitation and grooming gangs in July 2011. In its report, it categorically stated that “most of the victims are white and most of the convicted offenders are of Pakistani heritage”. The report further analysed 17 court prosecutions since 1997 about on-street grooming of young girls and it identifies that most found guilty were Muslim and a majority were members of the British Pakistani community.
Yet, if the mainstream media reports across the spectrum are monitored, including those by the BBC, The Sun and The Guardian, it is observed that the guilty are “labelled” and generalised as “Asian”. Western media have unconsciously or consciously generalised South Asian communities.
The revelations in the Rotherham Child Exploitation follow after a recent report in Manchester which stated that both police and children's services failed to protect vulnerable girls from similar grooming gangs. Other stories in the past have emerged from Rochdale, Oxford and Huddersfield. The Asian community stands in solidarity with these young girls who are prey to such grooming gangs. But, it is also rather unfortunate that the gravest silence prevails from within the community itself.
Muslim Council of Britain, the UK's largest Muslim organisation, has been actively campaigning against causes such as Islamophobia within the Tory Party and racist comments by the Prime Minister around Burkhas among others. Yet, beside condemnation and organising conferences in the past around the subject, the organisation has failed to address the actual cause behind the operation of such grooming gangs much less prevent them. It is also true that an organisation, no matter its scale of operations, cannot alone be successful in ensuring the social security of women. The onus also lies on the clerics, preachers, and other spiritual and community leaders who can contribute their bit to the society by working on a grassroots level and interacting with members who they deem need guidance. A solution to any problem can only be achieved if the community first acknowledges that there is a problem and then traces the root causes of the problem.
