25 May 2012 By Osman
Mirghani
Over the past few days, Britain has been preoccupied
with the prosecution and imprisonment of nine Muslim
men (eight Pakistanis and one Afghani) on charges of
being part of a child sex exploitation ring. Much has
been said about the religious and ethnic background of
the defendants, not to mention their victims, who were
all white minors suffering from social problems, to
the point that all issues became tangled up and
intertwined; criminal considerations, religious and
ethnic backgrounds and racial sensitivities. The
result was heated discussions that mostly inclined
towards unfair generalization, the promotion of a
stereotyped image of Islam and false accusations
against it. Islam is a religion that is embraced by
over 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe,
approximately 2.8 million of whom live in Britain.
Islam is Britain's second largest religion, and
Muslims make up nearly 5 percent of the country's
population. Of course, there were some rational and
balanced discussions of this case; however this all
went out the window amidst the clamorous voices that
highlighted the religious and racial features of a
purely criminal case in which the defendants are a
small handful of people who represent only themselves
and their own deviant behaviour. This climate served as
the perfect opportunity for racists to exploit, and so
some movements staged anti-Muslim and anti-immigration
demonstrations in which they raised slogans like "No
to Islam", "Protect our Children…Expel the Rapists"
and "Our Children are not Halal Meat", in a reference
to the sale of halal meat to Muslims. Such movements
are now active in numerous Western states, and they
are exploiting the financial and economic crises as
well as the widespread negative image of Islam since
the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent terrorist
operations, including – of course – the 7 July, 2005
tube bombings in London. This image has contributed to
feeding the negative climate which has produced laws
banning the niqab and hijab, as well as the
construction of minarets in some Western capitals,
provoking extremist violence as was the case with the
crimes of Anders Behring Breivik in Norway.
The grave problem is
that this climate is being strengthened by the
statements that are issued by some politicians or
so-called specialists, not to mention the superficial
articles which promote stereotypical, mistaken,
ignorant or sometimes malicious images of Islam and
Muslims. In addition to this, there are also some
press reports that intend to provoke public opinion or
controversy by publishing some defamatory images. For
example, a television report screened during the trial
session of the nine defendants who were prosecuted on
charges of rape, sexual assault and trafficking for
the purpose of sexual exploitation, amongst other
crimes, showed the defendants standing in front of a
mosque. This represents a dangerous suggestion linking
these terrible crimes with Islam, particularly as
these defendants were not religious and their crimes
were committed in Asian restaurants or empty houses
and apartments, nowhere in the vicinity of a mosque!
The comparison is truly scandalous when compared with
the manner in which crimes involving the sexual abuse
of children inside churches at the hands of priests
are dealt with, for despite the noise and controversy
surrounding such scandals, we have never heard anybody
linking this to Christianity as a religion or to the
priests' ethnic background. It is true that there were
discussions about deviations within the church, and
there were calls for the Catholic Church and others to
put an end this phenomenon and uncover its
perpetrators, yet no one saw this as something
implicating Christianity as a whole or as something
that raises moral or ethical questions about all
Christians. The crime of sexual
assaulting children deserves the strongest
condemnation, regardless of the identity of the
perpetrators, their ethnic background or religious
affiliation, and this is something that is not
confined to individuals of Pakistani or Muslim
descent. Statistics and reports prepared by
specialists stress that with the exception of
Pakistani men being oversubscribed in such crimes,
most sexual crimes against minors are committed by
"white men". This is how the majority of media outlets
used this term in their reports, rather than saying
"White Christians", for example, in the same manner
that the Pakistanis were described as "Asian Muslims."
One of the striking
examples of intentionally linking Islam with the issue
of sexual exploitation of children can be seen in an
article published by the British Times newspaper last
Thursday entitled "Let's be honest. There's a clear
link with Islam". The title clearly demonstrates that
there is an intention to target Islam, distort its
image and use the crimes and deviation of a tiny
minority to put forward a negative image of all
Muslims. Columnist and Jewish writer David Aaronovitch
selectively chose statements that present a negative
image of Islam and Muslims in this article, focusing
on the defendants' religion and their Pakistani roots
as well as attacking the defendants' "inferior
culture" regarding the treatment of women. Such analysis removes
this case from the criminal realm where these
defendants have been tried for their crimes and
instead make the issue appear antagonistic towards
anything related to Muslims and Islam. This is because
this particular issue, by deviating towards such a
viewpoint, is not in the interests of the victims and
instead directs attention away from the search for the
true reasons that allowed these deviants to sexually
exploit minors. Many specialists have indicated that
minors with social or family problems are often
targeted by such criminals, for their circumstances
marks them out as easy prey, and this has nothing to
do with their complexion. In addition, crimes such as
this are not committed exclusively by individuals of a
certain religion or race, but are committed by men
from different categories, religions and races.
There can be no doubt
that the majority of British society remains tolerant,
and are gradually moving towards accepting cultural
and religious pluralism. Yet, this case reveals that
the road ahead remains long, especially when some
people find it easy to abuse Islam and defame Muslims
because of the deviant behaviour of a small minority,
the likes of which exist in any religion. Comments 💬 التعليقات |