Wednesday 16 May 2012

Rochdale Sex Crimes – Are they a product of the Pakistani Ghetto or Liberalism?




For certain, had these men been white Anglo-Saxons, the media coverage and the reaction would have been different; an isolated group of criminals only, with no reference to their racial or cultural identity. This is how for example serial killers are often portrayed. Take the example of the 8 Scottish paedophile gang convicted in 2009 [1] who were caught raping babies not consenting young teenagers like the Rochdale case, the news went unnoticed. Similarly, the recent case in Cornwall [2] also slipped under the media radar. There was no attempt to cast a slur on the wider community, based on the actions of these culprits.

In contrast, based on the actions of the 9 culprits in Rochdale, the media and certain politicians have been busy tarnishing the Pakistani community, which is almost a million or more in the UK. The notion of proportion and logic is discarded when there is an underlying agenda; predictably, the usual Islamophobes to the closet racists have come out blaming it on race and culture, the more daft elements of the far right are blaming religion.


We have become accustomed to semi-literate Islamophobes lacking in primary education, claiming how Islam promotes rapes. They can just about utter Sharia as ‘shooria’ or ‘muslamic’ law and rant about ‘alal’ meat as if they have discerning taste after a dose of alcohol. How is it possible for any religion to allow a clear sin? Islamic law, like the other Abrahamic faiths prohibits even consensual sex outside marriage, and by greater reason rape is given the severest punishment. You are far more likely to find rapists amongst the sexually liberal party goers than the devout Muslims in the Mosques.  If you want to blame religion, then blame the religion of secularism.

If we analyse this crime in the northern city of Rochdale, it has three components: drugs and alcohol, vulnerable young girls, and depraved men driven by lust - real life sexual predators.

As a society, we don’t just tolerate alcohol, but promote its consumption. Unlike alcohol, others forms of drugs such as cocaine, heroine and marijuana are technically illegal; however, trends amongst stars in the film and music industry often endorse it as something fashionable. By its consumption it will make you stand out from the rest is the implicit message, like violence is implicitly promoted through the violence of the good guys. Thus, the society is guilty in allowing and ‘promoting’ such substances in the first place. In contrast, Islam prohibits such all forms of intoxicants categorically; hence these men have acted in accordance with the values of the liberal West by using the intoxicants. I am sure the Islamophobes by now are dazed!  

The next component is the vulnerable young girls in care. For sure, the racial or religious identity of these girls would not have mattered to the 9 Pakistani men. They were seen as easy meat to prey on. Although the personal circumstances of these girls are not known, the fact that they are in care already tells us something; they have come from broken homes, which is a product of society and nothing to do with Pakistani culture. On the contrary, such a phenomenon is rare among Pakistanis as girls are always protected by their families. The liberals call it oppression as they are denied freedom.  The same argument is applicable to the native white population, where conservative values are upheld through the traditional family unit, which keeps them protected from sexual predators.  

Then comes the last component - these depraved men who acted with the opportunity to prey on these girls. The supply side is clear, demographics and liberal values that produce broken homes mean young white girls will be more in supply than girls from other ethnic backgrounds. The media is reluctant to acknowledge this pertinent point. 

As for the demand side, for these men the main component is opportunity, in conjunction with living in a liberal society which is highly sexualised. Isn’t sex promoted at every level without responsibility and consequence? Hence, their desire overtook their cultural values, which prohibits consensual sex outside marriage with anyone, let alone forcing someone using intoxicants.  

In short, the men acted in accordance with the liberal culture of the west, the use of drugs, opportunities provided by the easy access to vulnerable girls, and their sexual instinct agitated by a sexually charged society. However, that does not mean the men have no responsibility for their deeds, but one needs to point out the wider collective guilt, which nobody is acknowledging and passing the buck, describing it as a foreign cultural or racial problem, a nasty Pakistani import in the language of the far right.

Finally, what about justice for these young vulnerable girls? The lenient punishment given is not a fitting compensation for the loss of dignity and the permanent psychological scars; therefore, it will hardly constitute a form of deterrent for others. This reflects how society and the legal system value such crimes in the first place, which in turn shows how little they value the dignity of women. So much for women’s rights! It is not Islam, it is liberalism that facilitates such crimes and these criminals would have been crucified in a Sharia court, and not housed and fed in a relatively comfortable prison. The girls are collateral damage – because alcohol, drugs and a liberal sexual society is more important, and to hell with the consequences.



Yamin Zakaria (yamin@radicalviews.org)

Published on 16/05/2012

London, UK

[1]http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/15277412?utm_source=JUST+West+Yorkshire+List&utm_campaign=f57b941a27-RACIAL_JUSTICE_NETWORK4_29_2012&utm_medium=email


5 comments:

  1. I agree with much of this, however I think there is a certain amount of rose tinted spectacles about Muslim families and their daughters. From 1995 to 1998 I worked for a company that had a call centre in the UK staffed mainly by Muslim girls, the company was Asian owned but had a totally integrated staff. Most of the Muslim girls had mobile 'phones, not the norm in those days, so that their parents could always contact them which some of the other girls thought was almost as if they were being spied on. What shocked me was the number of abortions the company had to help organise. Some of the fathers were Muslims, some members of the wider community, be it Afro-Carribbean or European. The level of deceit that went on was extraordinairy, and I am still impressed with the incredible bravery of the girls who having had to go through such a trauma during the working day then had to go home and pretend it had just been another day at the office. Girls are girls, they will make mistakes and their religion doesn't seem to make any difference to their hormones, and Muslim families should understand that and not pretend their daughters are different from the rest of society.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi

    Thanks for your constructive comments, and reference to your experience. You are absolutely correct about this

    //Girls are girls, they will make mistakes and their religion doesn't seem to make any difference to their hormones, and Muslim families should understand that and not pretend their daughters are different from the rest of society.//

    Yes human nature is the same, driven by their hormones.
    Islam also addresses this point; hence, it has a view on how the gender relationship should be organised. The problem is we live in a society that runs contrary to those values, our challenge is to find answers to problems that arise as a consequence of living in such societies.
    And, being in denial or imposing cultural practices from back home will only make the situation worse.

    regards

    Yamin

    ReplyDelete
  3. Devilz+advokate17 May 2012 at 04:45

    The problem is do we as muslim parents accept this as the norm or carry on with the values we uphold.

    Isn't that the problem with the wider society in the west. Someone wishes to practice homosexuality so rather than condemn because that is your view, you are now forced to accept it and change your values in order to accommodate.

    And those young girls are now grown women with children of their own. The question which springs to mind is why do these girls now carry on with the same mindset and enforce the same values they rebelled against?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another problem is Muslim families not finding marriage partners soon enough, and finding spouses who actually might like each other rather than thrown together.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Salaam Aleikum.

    Good article. Keep up the good work Insha'Allah.

    ReplyDelete