Calling out evil in the U.K. | WORLD
Logo
Sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth | Donate

Calling out evil in the U.K.

Pakistani Muslim gangs abused, raped, and murdered women and young girls


Nicole, a survivor of grooming gangs, in 2022 Getty Images / Photo by Martin Pope

Calling out evil in the U.K.
You have {{ remainingArticles }} free {{ counterWords }} remaining. You've read all of your free articles.

Full access isn’t far.

We can’t release more of our sound journalism without a subscription, but we can make it easy for you to come aboard.

Get started for as low as $3.99 per month.

Current WORLD subscribers can log in to access content. Just go to "SIGN IN" at the top right.

LET'S GO

Already a member? Sign in.

Legitimate anger and moral outrage have emerged in the wake of heartbreaking revelations concerning rape and grooming gangs in the United Kingdom. For years, these gangs—mostly comprised of Pakistani Muslim men—have reportedly targeted young and vulnerable white British girls. While many media outlets refer to these gangs as “grooming,” the word is insufficient as these gangs systemically exploited, abused, raped, or murdered British girls. Some victims of these gangs were only 5 years old. The tragic reality is that many of these victims were intimidated and silenced by gang abusers, threatening to burn or kill them should they speak out. Worse, these victims were denied justice by politicians and deprived of protection by government officials.

Why? To avoid being labeled as racist and to preserve the fanciful image of a multicultural society.

Additionally, some politicians resorted to being silent as they didn’t want to lose the vote of Muslim citizens, especially in northern parts of the U.K. Still, former U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman—who is of Asian descent—didn’t shy away from identifying the horror of these gangs, saying, “The perpetrators are groups of men, almost all British Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values.” Braverman is correct because British values, based in the Christian tradition, are incompatible with some Islamic teachings about sexual behavior.

While evil persons of all religions, races, and ethnicities have undoubtedly been sexual predators in all generations, there is something inherently inhumane found in original Islamic texts and teachings concerning the treatment of women.

In Islam’s scripture, Allah allowed men to have sexual relations with those women whom they possessed—a practice interpreted by Islamic scholars as referring to slave girls who are owned by their masters. Shockingly, a female Muslim scholar from the prestigious Sunni Azhar University stated, “Allah allows Muslim men to rape non-Muslim women to humiliate them.” This is why Pakistani Muslim men found specific Islamic dogma that permitted them to exploit non-Muslim women. Non-Muslim men may abuse and rape women, but they don’t have religious and theological support for their evil predatorial behavior.

Then comes Muhammad’s model and precedent. He reportedly invaded a Jewish land, and after killing its chief, he selected the chief’s wife to become his own possession. For many Muslims who seek to imitate Muhammad’s example, this case provides a green light to use—or abuse—non-Muslim women whenever an opportune chance comes.

This is the “Islam” of the Muslim tradition. It is the “Islam” that many Western Muslims and non-Muslims alike want to ignore or even deny for the sake of avoiding the label of racist or bigot.

We must condemn cultural relativism and judge such evil as wrongdoing and vigorously and swiftly stop it.

But Islam is not a race and Muslims come from numerous races and ethnicities. Islam is a complex ideology and religion, and some of its aspects clash directly with Western values. Evaluating Islam as an ideology is a legitimate endeavor, especially when innocent lives and vulnerable humans are at stake.

While some modernist or liberal Muslims may condemn the actions of these Pakistani Muslims, it doesn’t matter much because the religious texts have horrific precedents that allow Muslim predators in our day to claim to imitate seventh-century Arabian models and to continue abusing the vulnerable in our midst precisely because they are not Muslim.

In this sense, British culture is not similar to the culture of Pakistan. The two are driven by opposing worldviews. In Britain, societal values insist on protecting women and vulnerable young girls against sexual predators. Marrying young girls and honor killing are never allowed. In some Muslim cultures, these are just fine. Child marriage is practiced and even allowed based on religious precedents. Honor killing is often swept under the rug so that the family is not shamed in an honor-shame context.

We must condemn cultural relativism and judge such evil as wrongdoing and vigorously and swiftly stop it.

The rape gangs in the U.K. are a repugnant problem that must be fully exposed. No more cover-up. People have been talking about this problem for years. Complicit politicians in the matter should be exposed and forced to resign and probably prosecuted as well. The Pakistani Muslim gang members must be caught and indicted under the law. Women and young girls who were victimized in these horrific circumstances should receive all the support they can get.

We should reveal the facts accurately. These gangs were institutional rings that exploited, abused, raped, and murdered young British women—only targeted because they aren’t Muslims. The predators were not merely Asians but Muslims who chose to legitimize their actions by relying on Muslim texts.

For the sake of the innocent and the vulnerable, we should not be intimidated by buzzwords like “islamophobia” and “bigotry,” as lives and souls are at stake. As for political correctness, let’s all work diligently to send it to oblivion.


A.S. Ibrahim

A.S. was born and raised in Egypt and holds two doctorates with an emphasis on Islam and its history. He is a professor of Islamic studies and director of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has taught at several schools in the United States and the Middle East and authored A Concise Guide to the Life of Muhammad (Baker Academic, 2022), Conversion to Islam (Oxford University Press, 2021), Basics of Arabic (Zondervan 2021), A Concise Guide to the Quran (Baker Academic, 2020), and The Stated Motivations for the Early Islamic Expansion (Peter Lang, 2018), among others.


Read the Latest from WORLD Opinions

Andrew T. Walker | The end of his presidency represents a cultural and spiritual reckoning

A.S. Ibrahim | The West must understand the dangers of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood

Ericka Andersen | Why Joe Rogan’s podcast format points to the future for politicians

Carl R. Trueman | The religious leaders who fail to see that mothers are not the only vulnerable ones in an abortion

COMMENT BELOW

Please wait while we load the latest comments...

Comments