Debate Over Inquiry into Grooming Gangs and the Role of Religion
As the UK government moves forward with an inquiry into grooming gangs, Christian Concern’s Tim Dieppe has raised objections, highlighting a potential oversight regarding Islam’s influence on these crimes. Dieppe argues that the inquiry’s framework inadequately addresses the religious motivations behind the abuse.
In his piece for The Conservative Woman, Dieppe criticizes the inquiry’s draft terms for scarcely mentioning religion, which appears only thrice and solely in the context of responses to the abuse. He believes this approach ignores the elements of Islamic law and theology that he sees as central to understanding the abuse, such as the perceived superiority of Muslims over non-Muslims and men over women, as well as concepts like jihad-related sex slavery.
Dieppe states, “It seems then that the government deliberately wants to keep the role of religion in motivating grooming gang abuse out of the scope of the inquiry. To stave off criticism on this point, it has commissioned separate research into this question. But research is not the same as an inquiry.”
He further expresses concerns over the lack of transparency regarding this research, noting, “We have no details about who is carrying out this research or what resources they have or when the research is expected to be published. Indeed, the government has not promised that this research will ever be published. It may well not be published at all.”
While the government deliberates on the inquiry’s terms, MP Rupert Lowe has already concluded a separate, crowdfunded investigation. This inquiry supports the view that Islamic beliefs significantly motivated the crimes.
One survivor recounted during Lowe’s inquiry, “Things would escalate around Eid … The main clash that I kind of had with the religion side of it was, I grew up a Christian. I would wear my cross because it was something really, really special to me … it was just used as a way to break me down, as in ‘Where is your God now? Why has your God forsaken you?’”
Similarly, Anglican priest Dr. Mark Durie, in a recent report, contends that grooming-gang activities in the UK are linked more to Islamic theology than ethnicity. In Premier Christianity Magazine, he states, “Haunting the official responses to these crimes is the twin spectre of Islamophobia and a dread that the multicultural experiment is failing. Such pressures have undoubtedly intimidated many officials from speaking out.”
A letter addressed to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Baroness Longfield, who chairs the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, calls for an investigation into whether the ethnic and religious backgrounds of those involved were a “causal factor” in the abuse. Among the signatories is shadow home secretary Chris Philp.
This article was originally written by www.christiantoday.com
