The Muslim community is still in denial about Rochdale

May 16, 2017 by

by Yasmin Alibhai Brown, inews:

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, the BBC will be showing a dramatised version of the Rochdale child sexual exploitation scandal that came to light in 2012. It was but one investigation into large scale, organised sex abuse.
Young white girls, many from unhappy, impoverished or chaotic families, were tempted with fake affection and cheap treats and then savagely, continuously raped, passed round and controlled. The agencies did little to intervene. These girls did not seem to matter to them. Most men on sex offenders’ registers are white; most men in grooming gangs are Asian Muslims.
The Rochdale abusers were all Muslim men. Most of them were husbands and fathers. In Rotherham, Derby, Leeds, Oldham, Blackburn and elsewhere, the grooming gangs were again almost all Pakistani Muslims. Most men on sex offenders’ registers are white; most men in grooming gangs are Asian Muslims.
Denial
The relevant social services, police forces and The Crown Prosecution Service have acknowledged their failings and are, we hope, reforming. But the rapists’ families and communities remain in denial. Nazir Afzal, himself a Muslim, was the heroic chief prosecutor of the north west who prosecuted the Rochdale gang and got them convicted. Several Rochdale Muslims have told me this made him a “race traitor” and a “coconut”- brown on the outside, white inside.
I do understand how racist and neo-fascist factions use such crimes to recruit more members. But their causes and narratives are strengthened when perpetrators are shielded by the misguided. Secrets and lies cannot cover up the stench of heinous crimes. That festering stench has now spread to all of us Muslims.

 

Related Posts

Tags

Share This