Victimhood Poker: No Laughing Matter When There Are Real Victims

Ordinarily, Victimhood Poker is a cause for fun. However, the seriousness underlying today's edition, where it appears that Muslims trump paedophile / sex victims, leaves no room for mirth.

The Guardian article, "Grooming and Our Ignoble Tradition of Racialising Crime" by Libby Brooks (complete with a telling illustration) covers the recent Times revelations about Pakistani sex gangs, stating:

"But what has not emerged is any consistent evidence to suggest that Pakistani Muslim men are uniquely and disproportionately involved in these crimes, nor that they are preying on white girls because they believe them to be legitimate sexual quarry, as is now being suggested...

"Narey [Barnados CEO] also refutes the allegation that Muslim men are grooming white girls because of cultural assumptions about their sexual availability, as girls from minority backgrounds have been similarly abused."

The (at best) distasteful piece seems to be a reaction to the BNP's Nick Griffin being able to vindicate himself for previously raising the same issue and being twice unsuccessfully prosecuted for doing so. It tries arguing that this isn't an Pakistani Asian issue, that it is not an issue related to local Muslim culture in the areas involved and that the wider overall child abuse picture is predominately white (which is true), and therefore the inference is that these accusations are racially motivated and we should look elsewhere first.

If she's right, one would expect a host of the usual suspects to support her case. So let's hear what Hilary Wilmer from the victim support group, 'Coalition for the Removal of Pimping', (CROP) has to say [my emphasis]:

"We've been working over the last 7, 8, 9 years with over 400 families and of those families - mostly in the NW, and the NE and the Midlands but not entirely so -  96, 97% ...are white and in terms of the perpetrators those gangs in the vast majority are from Pakistani Asian origin." [video: after 1m33s]

Perhaps Alan Edwards, Detective Chief Inspector for one of the affected regions, will support Brook's argument:

"These girls are being passed around and used as meat. To stop this type of crime you need to start everyone talking about it but everyone's been too scared to address the ethnicity factor.

'No one wants to stand up and say that Pakistani guys in some parts of the country are recruiting young white girls and passing them around their relatives for sex, but we need to stop being worried about the racial complication". [link]

Perhaps not.

What about support from the independent and world's first dedicated university department dedicated to reducing crime - UCL's Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime (JDI):

"In a briefing paper, researchers ... concurred that victims were typically white girls while 'most central offenders are Pakistani'." [link]

No.

How about Labour's ex-Justice (no sniggering at the back) Secretary and current Blackburn MP Jack Straw:

"But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men... who target vulnerable young white girls.

"We need to get the Pakistani community to think much more clearly about why this is going on and to be more open about the problems that are leading to a number of Pakistani heritage men thinking it is OK to target white girls in this way." [link]

Again, no.

But of course, he is right about the Pakistani community, but to expect it to take a line contrary to Brook's would not consistent with what we have come to expect, so we can probably find evidence there to strength her argument?

Er, no.

To his absolute credit, leftie and leader of the Muslim youth group Ramadhan Foundation, Mohammed Shafiq, has kept a very high profile throughout the reporting and has been unequivocal in his condemnation of the crimes and what the root cause is:

"There is a perception that some of these young men do not see white girls as equal, as valuable, of high moral standing as they see their own daughters, and their own sisters, and I think that's wrong... It's a form of racism that's abhorrent in a civilised society." [BBC]

"I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist. These men are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race." [Daily Mail]

"The grooming of white teenagers by predominantly Asian gangs is evil and abhorrent... They [the Imams and Mosques] should be promoting that white teenagers are no less valuable than their own [Asian] daughters or sisters." [The Sun]

So the leading victim support group (CROP), a top DCI involved in investigating the crimes, the Jill Dando Institute, the ex-Justice Secretary and Labour MP for Blackburn, and a leading and respected Pakistani spokesperson ALL provide a consensus on the issue that is at odds with what Brooks would have us believe.

Now, whilst it must be especially abhorrent for the Guardian (and many others, I suspect) that this story allows Nick Griffin to vindicate himself, that is a sideshow to the issue in hand. There is apparently a real problem in many Midlands and Northern towns of gangs of predominantly of Pakistani descent targeting vulnerable mainly white girls, which is probably a (mis-)function of their Muslim beliefs. It certainly requires further and unhindered investigation.

However, we won't address the problem and help these girls whilst the likes of Brooks continue to play victimhood cards and try to ignore the evidence to suit their own political agenda - if you still don't believe that they are doing that then ask yourself can you imaging her writing something similar if these were white gangs targeting Pakistani girls and the evidence was as strong? I can't.

It makes me sick to the stomach that they push their pious political agenda and thereby create more barriers instead of focusing their efforts on helping stop the abuse and exploitation of these vulnerable young girls.

Comments welcomed.

FAV