Head of Public Policy Tim Dieppe has highlighted for years the link between ‘grooming gangs’ and Islam. He reviews the new report from Rupert Lowe’s inquiry
Rupert Lowe MP has published the results of his Rape Gang Inquiry this week in a 219-page document which can be found online here. This report gives some helpful perspective on the scale and nature of these crimes.
The largest section of the report consists of twenty victim testimonies which make for harrowing reading. There are also some whistleblower testimonies. Then there is quite a lot of discussion of enabling factors, the Islamic influence, and recommendations.
The scale of the abuse
The report cites evidence that these crimes were carried out by mostly Muslim men with predominantly Pakistani heritage. These gangs have been operating around the country since the 1950s. The report estimates that at least 250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma.
The Inquiry finds evidence that rape gangs operate or have operated in at least 149 Local Authority Districts across the United Kingdom. This, of course, includes London, where the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has repeatedly insisted that grooming gangs are not operating.
Sacrificing girls to political correctness
My first article about grooming gangs, written in 2018, was titled Sacrificing girls to political correctness. That article is cited in the report, and in it I sought to explain the Islamic connection with grooming gangs. This report reaches the same conclusion:
“Political correctness, fear of accusations of racism, and fear of losing electoral support from certain demographics have taken precedence over the protection of British children.”
Though I have been saying this for years, it is still shocking to read again. We have sacrificed thousands of young girls on the altar of political correctness. These gangs continue to this day.
This reverence for political correctness was evident on the very day the report was released. Whistleblower gang victim Sammy Woodhouse was interviewed live on Good Morning Britain where she disclosed that the producer had told her not to mention the race or religion of the Pakistani Muslim men who perpetrated these crimes. This is exactly why these gangs were not tackled in the first place. Such political correctness has a lot to answer for.
The Islamic connection
The report cites considerable evidence of the Islamic connection with rape gangs. This includes testimony from victims such as Taylor who said:
“Before they raped me, they would chant ‘Bismillah Hir Rahman Nir Rahim.’”
(Translation: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful.)
Another victim, Eleanor, said:
“I had friends that were Muslim, girl friends, and this never happened to them. They would be in the cars with us sometimes, but the men would treat them differently.”
Jen, another victim, explained:
“They have no compassion for the young girls that are out on the streets and they see us as slags, as white trash. ‘English pig dogs’ came up a lot. Muslims don’t like pigs and they don’t like dogs. So they hate dogs, they hate pigs, and they’d put women on the same level as that.”
Yet another victim, Kate, said:
“Comments were constantly made suggesting that ‘white girls’ and Christian girls were viewed as having fewer morals or lower value, whereas ‘Muslim girls’ were described by some of the men as having dignity and higher moral standing. These comparisons were used to justify the way I was treated and to further humiliate and control me. I was also subjected to religiously charged comments designed to shame and dehumanise me, including statements implying that God had abandoned me or would reject me because of what had been done to me.”
Christian Concern published last year a report by Dr Mark Durie entitled UK Grooming Gangs and Islam. In his report, Dr Durie identified eight aspects of Islamic law and theology that are proposed to influence and enable grooming gang criminality.
The Rape Gang Inquiry Report has a section on the influence of Islam which discusses these very same eight factors. Dr Durie’s report for Christian Concern is cited, and Dr Durie himself is thanked in the acknowledgements for enriching the report with his expert knowledge.
The report also highlights how fear of accusations of ‘Islamophobia’ has been an enabling factor in these crimes.
Rupert Lowe tweeted:
Our inquiry report proves that without doubt there is an undeniable link between religion and the rape gangs.
Islam. As a country, we need to find the courage to finally say so.
He is right. I hope this report helps us to find that courage.
Recommendations and next steps
There are a number of recommendations made by the report. These include:
- Revising the sentencing guidelines for group-based sexual exploitation.
- Deporting foreign nationals convicted of group-based CSE.
- Setting up a dedicated unit in the Crown Prosecution Service to handle these cases.
- A new Childhood Sexual Exploitation Act with a specific offence of “organised group-based child sexual exploitation.”
- A statutory duty to publish ethnicity, immigration status, nationality and religion of both victims and perpetrators in all such cases.
- No allowance that any child can ever consent to sexual abuse, and prosecutions for professionals who excuse child sexual activity as consensual.
- Proven rapists should lose parental rights over children born as a result of rape.
- Mandatory training for frontline professionals on group-based CSE.
Next steps:
- Publishing the Inquiry’s full witness statements.
- Seeking out further witness statements.
- Naming in Parliament those found to have enabled rape gangs.
- Initiating civil proceedings and private prosecutions where appropriate.
Mainstream media has not covered this report, as far as I have seen. Separately, Baroness Casey has lamented in The Times about government inaction on grooming gangs one year on from the publication of her audit into the sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs. She complains of a tick-box approach with “a tendency to do just enough to demonstrate action without truly gripping and fixing the problem.”
I hope this report gets the attention it deserves and prompts action by the government. I hope that the government’s national inquiry is as thorough and forthright in its analysis of these crimes as this report is. I hope that people will now be unafraid to say that Islam is a key factor in these rape gangs. Sadly, I am not holding my breath.