I ask the question since it seems there are some people who either believe they don’t, or they seek to give rise to doubt by using a creative alternative narrative. Let me be blunt, it is my genuine belief that such grooming gangs of Pakistani origin men do exist. That does not mean all Pakistani men indulge in such behaviour.
The then Home Secretary, Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP commissioned a review into the characteristics of grooming gangs back in 2018, saying that they should leave “no stone unturned”. The Rt Hon Priti Patel MP finally managed to get it released after a huge public outcry. She had to fight off the civil servants who wanted to hide the report, the same civil servants who did not like her, a Person of Colour, tell them how to do their job in the interest of the nation! The report was inconclusive, not because grooming gangs don’t exist, but because the data collected by the police was done badly.
There are many in the Labour Party who are still struggling to come to terms with Pakistani grooming gangs. The best they can do is use the term ‘Asian’ and malign everyone who falls within this broad description. I applaud Sarah Champion who was a lone voice within Labour and talked openly about Pakistani grooming gangs. Interestingly she said, ‘There are almost 100 people in jail now for grooming in and around Rotherham. Nationally there are between 500 and 1,000 people in jail for these offences. That’s quite a decent sample size, isn’t it? Why doesn’t the Home Office simply sit down with those offenders, interview them, and create an offenders’ profile from that?’
Let’s remember what Jack Straw said, he suggested some men of Pakistani origin see white girls as "easy meat", that "there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men... who target vulnerable young white girls". Even the pro-Islamic Lady Sayeeda Warsi said: "There is a small minority of Pakistani men who believe that white girls are fair game. And we have to be prepared to say that. You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first. This small minority who see women as second class citizens, and white women probably as third class citizens, are to be spoken out against.”
So, if there is to be any debate in Parliament about grooming gangs, let me seek to lend a helping hand. Why not call it what it is, that many of these gangs are composed of Pakistani men? It is said that some of these men believe that their religious text gives them a right to violate non-Muslim women. We have seen evidence of this same justification used by ISIS in their brutal attack on Yazidi women. It seems, anyone and everyone is fair game if you are classified as a ‘kaffir’. One cannot excuse away religiously motivated crimes.
If there is to be a debate, then let our MPs do so without appeasing to religious extremists whose only wish is to hide their crimes.
If our politicians don’t deal with the real problem, then there is a danger that the far-right groups will seize on this and the people who suffer will not only be the Pakistani community, but all of us. It’s the nation that pays the price.
I have said it before, and I do so now, for me it’s human rights first, before religious rights. Any faith that diminishes God’s creation, cannot be the faith of God. No true God would allow such bigotry.
