The terrible impact this will have had on the children is almost too hard to comprehend but personally, it doesn’t come as a great surprise.
The thing driving a good deal of these offenses is a mindset that’s far more established in the UK than many people think. As we’ve seen in Rotherham, Oldham, Bradford, Oxford and Bristol, one of the issues at play is that for many reasons, those in positions of responsibility do not feel able to publicly acknowledge the issue due to its inherent sensitivity – their reticence is reflected in the approach of MPs and to some extent the general public who don’t want to be labelled as “racist” by discussing something that actually has no relation to race but does have some relation to geography and the culture.
My own experience is that through a number of reasonably close Muslim friends, colleagues and acquaintances I’ve heard the mindset of parts of the wider community i.e. their parents, childhood friends etc. The broader thinking aside from seeing children of other faith as somehow inferior as we’ve seen in this case also extends to:
– children born to muslim fathers and white women being the work of the devil i.e. it’s not the father’s “fault”
– white non muslim women being seen as prostitutes or conveniently treated as “brides for the night” so that the men don’t bear any culpability for the relationship or even having to admit they were having a relationship with a non muslim (in some cases this is at considerable emotional cost to the men as they struggle to reconcile the expectations of parents and the community with the feelings they have for their partner)
– non muslim women basically being there to satisfy the sexual needs of muslim man on a temporary basis.
– non muslims being dirty and inferior – particularly those that are gay or jewish.
Clearly this thinking does not reflect all muslims but it does reflect the thinking of a significant number of those whose families originated from a handful of towns in Pakistan and to a lesser extent Bangladesh – I’ve not met any Muslims that have moved to the UK from other parts of Asia who seem to hold views that are as potentially damaging to UK society and in the main they seem to be as revolted as everyone else as are the many community leaders who have spoken out in Mosques on the specific subject of child grooming.
It’s also worth noting that the repugnant ideology laid out by ISIS in Syria and Iraq has at its core similar underlying principles with regard to non muslims and people in Europe / the west – and whilst we don’t have daily beheadings and stonings in Britain this is perhaps an appropriate time to recognise that the belief system held by these people must be directly challenged at every opportunity in order to protect women and children in Britain in order to avoid any more child grooming, FGM, slavery and an increasing number of women being oppressed by men.
