Numerous Muslim organisations from all around the UK wrote to Rishi Sunak to express their deep concern on what they called home secretary Suella Braverman’s “ill-considered and divisive statement”.
The home secretary has come under fire from Muslim organisations across the UK. “What’s clear is that we’ve seen a practise whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes in difficult situations are being pursued and raped, drugged, and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked child abuse rings or networks, it’s now down to the authorities to track these perpetrators down without fear or favour relentlessly and bring them to justice,” said Suella Braverman.
Braverman also stated that these crimes weren’t tackled in Labour-run areas for fear of being branded as racist.
One of the letters was signed by Dr Shahid Latif, chair of the British Pakistani Psychiatrists Association, who said that he wanted the statement to be withdrawn immediately. “There is simply no other option, and the prime minister ought to publicly distance himself from these remarks. He must understand that they only serve to polarise society further.” He further said, “In this country, Muslims are only recently no longer being associated with terrorism. As a result of such statements, when people think of child sexual exploitation, they immediately associate it with British Pakistanis, which is actually going back to the beginning and starting all over again.”
Muslim organisations in England, Wales, and Scotland described it as “an act of collective punishment for the reprehensible acts of a few,” while the Muslim Women’s Network, said Ms Braverman’s “approach…of demonising an entire community and lending credibility to far-right narratives undermines the need to ensure that all victims of child sexual abuse are protected and all perpetrators are brought to justice.”
On April 3, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a new Grooming Gangs Taskforce to assist police forces in investigating the serious problem of Muslim grooming gangs in the country. As per the official statement from his office, the task force will have specialist officers to assist in the investigation to ensure the criminals behind grooming gangs will be brought to justice.
I will do whatever it takes to root out grooming gangs once and for all.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 3, 2023
Here’s how 👇 pic.twitter.com/ZOLoMxippH
The problem of Muslim grooming gangs in the UK
In recent years, there have been several reports of vulnerable young girls, especially minors, being exploited by organised grooming gangs across the country. In October last year, it was reported that Omar, Khalid, Jameel and 21 others were charged with raping a minor girl for four years in Bradford. These grooming gangs typically consist of Pakistani Muslim men, the reason why the mainstream media and even the authorities try to keep them hushed up. An independent inquiry into the matter revealed due to political unease, these cases were ignored by the authorities.
Besides the child sex abuse, the case also pertains to Grooming Jihad, a global issue that has become particularly stark in the UK, where Islamists prey on young girls and women, exploit their vulnerability and use rape as an instrument to inflict punishment.
In 2020, the police charged 32 men for over 150 sexual offences against eight underage teenage girls in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.
The crimes were committed between 1999 and 2012 against the victims, who were aged between 13-16 years in the Kirklees, Bradford and Wakefield areas. Reportedly, several such victims were subjected to heinous crimes even after they turned adults.
Nearly 19,000 children were sexually abused in England in 2018-2019
According to the official figures, it is estimated that nearly 19,000 minors in England were sexually groomed in England in the last year, reported Dailymail. The local authorities in England identified around 18,700 suspected victims in 2018-19, up from 3,300 five years ago. The latest figures showed a sharp increase in the number of child grooming victims over the last five years.
The highest rates of child grooming victims in Britain were reported in areas including Birmingham, Lancashire and Bradford. One of the most horrific cases was of Charlene Downes who disappeared from Lancashire. She was feared to be groomed by Muslim gangs and murdered. Her body was allegedly minced into pieces and served as kebabs to customers at a takeaway restaurant in the area.
