A Sikh group is urging the media and politicians not to describe Rotherham grooming gang as Asian, since the term is very vague and tarnish the community's name.
Four of the six people convicted offences including rape and assault as part of years of sexual abuse in the Yorkshire town of Rotherham, were of Pakistani heritage, while two others were British women.
The case has been prominently discussed as an example of 'Asian grooming gangs' but the term was previously criticised in December 2013, when Sikh and Hindu groups started a petition, saying its slanderous to use the term Asian to describe Pakistani offenders.
In a joint statement, the Hindu Council UK, the Network of Sikh Organisations, Sikh Media Monitoring Group and the Sikh Awareness Society, said: “Communities who themselves fall victim of this emerging pattern of criminality, should not be besmirched by the vague terminology ‘Asian’…in order to help find a solution to the problem, we need to be clear on the identity of those involved.”
The petition closed with 1,859 signatures calling for the word 'Asian' not to be used in grooming and sex abuse cases.
Bhai Amrik Singh, chairman of the Sikh Federation UK told the Independent, he hoped their combined prison sentences of more than 100 years would give a measure of justice to “victims that have endured more than a decade of violence and horrific sexual abuse”.
“We have learnt the perpetrators of these crimes regarded themselves as above the law as the authorities were supposedly worried about race relations and turned a blind eye despite repeated warnings,” he added.
“One of the demands in the Sikh Manifesto that we published a year ago before the General Election was that the government should encourage public bodies and the media to abandon the use of the term ‘Asian’ when describing perpetrators for reasons of political correctness.
“If the four men that have been found guilty and carried out the abuse were Pakistani Muslims, this is how they should be described and not called Asian.”
Hussain brothers were infamous in locality
Three brothers: Arshid Hussain, 40, who led the gang, was jailed for 35 years while siblings Basharat, 39, and Bannaras, 36, were jailed for 25 and 19 years respectively for sex grooming. Their uncle, Qurban Ali, 53, who was found guilty of conspiracy to rape, was jailed for 10 years.
Associate Karen MacGregor, 59, was jailed for 13 years and Shelley Davies, 40, given an 18 month suspended term.
Arshid and Basharat Hussain were found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of 38 offences, including rape, indecent assault, abduction, false imprisonment and making threats to kill.
Bannaras Hussain pleaded guilty to 10 charges before the trial.
MacGregor and Davies were found guilty of false imprisonment and conspiracy to procure a woman under 21 to become a common prostitute. MacGregor was also convicted of two counts of conspiracy to rape.
Sentencing the gang, Judge Sarah White said the harm they had caused was of "unimaginable proportions".
She said: "The impact of your offending upon the victims, their families and indeed the wider community has been devastating. Their childhood and adolescence can never be reclaimed."
The judge said the brothers were well-known in the area, driving distinctive cars and having a reputation for violence.
Social issue?
In an article in The Independent, raising certain social questions surrounding this controversy, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wrote, “The Pakistani Muslim men – three brothers and an uncle – who groomed, raped and destroyed young girls in Rotherham have been given long sentences. Two local white women have also been convicted of supplying girls to the men. The reactions to these verdicts are instructive.
“Racists are red with righteous rage; this is what happens, they say, when you let “coloureds” into the country. Many anti-racists, just as blindly furious, assert race and ethnicity have nothing to do with what happened. The white female procurers are their alibis. The rapists’ relatives and community leaders stand by their men. They believe the blokes took what was freely offered by trashy females – children, daughters. Muslims who condemn the exploitation, in their eyes, bring shame on the community. That’s how twisted their values are.
“The one question nobody asks is how these men have been treating their sisters and wives. Most of them behave just as abominably and cruelly indoors as they do outside when they prey on young flesh.
"They want control; they abjure equality. Some – a small minority – do feel a kind of love for the women and girls in the family but many have monstrous views on sexual equality and feminine desire. Home is a cage in which no pleasures are permitted, where hopes and freedoms expire.
“Activists have sought to free these women for decades. The terrible truth is that as society becomes more permissive, the number of caged birds increases. One caveat: I am not saying all Muslim girls and women are oppressed. What I am saying is that sexual predators from traditional Pakistani families and many other minority communities think all women and girls are low-life...”
Last week’s convictions were the first successful prosecution of a grooming gang in Rotherham since the Jay Report found at least 1,400 girls had been sexually exploited in Rotherham over a 16-year period.
The report said the majority of perpetrators were men of Pakistani heritage and accused South Yorkshire Police and Rotherham Borough Council of “blatant” failures and the “suppression” of documents highlighting the issue from as early as 2002.
Muslim community backlashes at social commentator tweet
On the other hand on 26th of Feb, controversial social commentator, Katie Hopkins, allegedly published the following tweet in relation to Rotherham grooming scandal, saying "Muslim men raping white women is consistent with the teaching of Islam. Revoke their citizenship and deport the bastards. Asian my arse."
Tell MAMA received numerous public referrals in relation to this publication and according to a statement they have lodged a formal complaint to the Metropolitan Police Service urging them to investigate the complaint under the Racial and Religious Hatred Act (2006) and the Public Order Act (1986). Specific reasoning has been outlined in the letter to the MET.
Commenting on the complaint, the Founder and Director of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal OBE stated: "This is the modus operandi of Hopkins. She is playing to a specific audience and trying to elicit responses from it, by being far more stereotypical of Muslims.
“So, suggesting that people should be afraid of Muslims, (she lumps the sheer diversity of Muslims together), she links the followers of Islam to paedophilic tendencies at a time when the Rotherham grooming scandal has just returned verdicts. She is in effect, playing dog whistle politics and suggesting that nearly 3 million of our fellow citizens are a threat. Lock up your white daughters is her chant.
“This is repulsive and bigoted and has no place in social comments in 2016...”
Home Secretary Theresa May plans to strip grooming gangs of their British citizenship.
In a major crack down on child exploitation groups, the Tory MP wants to deport offenders at the end of their prison sentences.
