NB: This article is a personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Centre for Diversity.
What do all these men have in common? – Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein, Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris, John Travolta, Stuart Hall, Gary Glitter, Jonathon King, Max Clifford, Donald Trump, Al Frankel and Roy Moore. It’s not what you think.
Yes, the obvious common factor is that they have all been accused or convicted of being sexual predators.
It is also obvious is that none of these people are Muslims or Pakistanis. How do we know that? Well, if you ask any British Muslim or British Pakistani, they will tell you that, had they been Muslim, then their ‘Muslimness’ would have been very much highlighted in the media and that Islam would very likely have been blamed as the reason behind their crimes.
The other thing in common is that political correctness was not blamed once, for the lack of action being taken against non-Muslim offenders by the Police; for crimes that have spanned three decades or more in the case of some of the alleged offenders.
So if religion, race and political correctness were not issues for non-Muslims, why are we bombarded with erroneous stories of political correctness when it relates to relating to Muslim Pakistanis?
There is a real grievance amongst Muslims that the media sometimes (in trying to make the news that much bigger) make these types of crimes synonymous with Islam or Pakistanis, although in some cases this may be an inadvertent consequence.
The big question is: what is the real reason for the lack of action taken by the Police?
The myths are also perpetuated by the likes of the Muslim led Quilliam Foundation which recently published a report, which blames political correctness and emphasises that the “community” should do more. Almost all British Muslims that have heard of the QF switch off at the mere mention of them.
Then we have Trevor Phillips (former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and Broadcaster) who seems to continually go on about political correctness as if that prevents the Police doing their jobs. This is all nonsense. It is a lazy conclusion drawing. It isn’t well thought out and it misses the point.
Mr Philips should know better than to stigmatise people from one of the world’s largest faiths. If he is going to make these types of remarks then he should be better informed.
The question is, what benefit comes from highlighting faith or ethnicity? In trying to explore this question, it is truly difficult to come up with any solid answers.
One could say that the Media opt for this particular descriptive tool to describe Muslim or Pakistani criminals, as a quick and easy way of adding a societal and cultural reference or context to a news piece. But if that is the case, surely describing any and all criminals by their race and religious background – for example, Christian, white Catholic or Jewish; should also be applied as often and in equal measure, for the same purposes.
Mr Phillips has called for the authorities to admit that most men in sex grooming-gangs are Muslim. Can we now expect Mr Phillips to demand that the authorities also announce the ethnicity of those involved in paedophile rings, in the same way?
What benefit would this bring to Police investigations past, present or future, if the information is incorrect? In fact, surely purporting incorrect information would hinder any on-going or future investigations.
Back in August 2017 Phillips went on to launch an angry attack on the refusal of the establishment – including the BBC – to (in his view) properly describe the men behind the sickening crimes. He said that “[b]ut our elites have replaced their old fear of being called racist with a new bogey. It comes to something when the BBC prefers to risk being condemned for racism than expose itself to the charge of Islamophobia.”
This is not child’s play. The use of language such as bogey is unhelpful. Islamophobia is racism; as Anti-Semitism is; as Xenophobia is. Mr Phillips should know this and should know better than to make inflammatory remarks, without any evidence to back them up.
The experience of many British Muslims is that Islamophobia is treated far differently to racism. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has spoken about how Islamophobia now passes the coffee table test. You can get away with far more when making disparaging remarks about Muslims than you can about people from BAME backgrounds.
Islamophobic leaders of hate groups have taken a much more sophisticated approach to racism. Britain First, the EDL and other Neo-Nazi groups talk about not being racist against other groups like Jewish people, African-Caribbean’s (despite the fact that their supporters are often caught on video phones flashing Nazi signs and mouthing filthy racist abuse). These groups are hate groups and they are hate groups that try to use ‘divide and rule’ tactics to get non-Muslim communities to turn on their neighbouring Muslim communities when really they should be coming together as one community to fight back against such groups.
I ask again what benefit can be achieved, from highlighting gangs as specifically Muslim or Pakistani?
The other big question is why didn’t the Police investigate properly?
The answer is disturbing because the answer to the big question is more to do with discrimination by the Police, their unconscious biases and a lack of empathy by their Officers for young, working-class vulnerable white girls.
In my experience as an ex–Police Officer the more senior level Police Officers who work at a strategic command level are extremely risk-averse. When things get messy they close ranks and ‘operation damage limitation’ begins.
When operation damage limitation begins they have, on more than one occasion, employed dark tactics (the families of the Hillsborough victims would attest to that). In this case, they blame political correctness for Police Officers not doing their jobs properly.
If Police officers did not do their duty because of political correctness then heads should roll. How many Police officers have been disciplined over the lack of action?
Operational Police Officers take a very direct approach to crime. It is clear cut – black and white. If a crime is committed they investigate it. There would have been very little if any, political correctness at their level. What would have been present, however, is their own unconscious and conscious biases and some degree of negligence and laziness.
I have to say that from having spoken to an ex-CID investigating officer from the Yorkshire area I was appalled, but not entirely surprised when he told me about the attitudes of some of the investigating officers. He said that some white officers had described these girls as “slappers” and “little white slags”. He told me “Nobody took them seriously until the shit hit the fan”.
The truth is clear for those that wish to see it. Anyone who is convicted of, or involved in, sex crimes is a criminal. These crimes not only have no place in Islam, but they also have no place in decent British society at all – regardless of the backgrounds of the person who committed the crime.
These crimes are repulsive and disturbing. Let us call these people what they are – criminals. Let the Police investigate and prosecute them for what they are and no more excuses please!
