Muslim Rape Allegations
Asian rape allegations
Race
Published: 22-Aug-2003By: Justin Rowlatt
Channel 4 News has uncovered details of an 18 month police and social services investigation into allegations that young men are targeting under-age girls for sex, drugs and prostitution in the West Yorkshire town of Keighley.
But what's explosive about the allegations is that all the young men are Asian, and all the girls are white. The local MP, Anne Cryer, says the men's cultural background of arranged marriages is the key to understanding the problem. That's vehemently denied by Asian community leaders and by social workers. But the mothers of some of the girls say existing legislation is not protecting their children. Our North of England correspondent Justin Rowlatt has this: The suggestion that men are seeking out schoolgirls for sex would be controversial in any community. But the claims about what's happening here in Keighley are particularly incendiary. Sixteen per cent of the Yorkshire town's 70,000 population is Asian. And the allegation is that what is happening here in Keighley is that Asian men are seducing young white girls. Supt Mark Whyman, West Yorkshire Police: "Early last year we received a variety of reports that young Asian men by young I mean in their teens to their twenties were targeting young vulnerable school girls for sex and were actually leading to prostitution in some cases." But it's proved very difficult to tackle. Many of the girls don't see themselves as victims and the police investigation - which lasted a year and a half - has lead to just one prosecution for a serious sexual offence, a rape. Kath Tunstall, Bradford Social Services "I fully agree and accept that young girls are being exploited and this is a child protection issue and that's why we're taking great steps to address it. There is a frustration without any evidence to pursue prosecutions." As far as the police and social services are concerned this is a child protection matter -- they say race is not an issue. Yet -- even if they've never been involved -- most schoolgirls in the town will tell you that cars full of Asian men waiting at the school gates have become just another fact of school life. Gemma Meares, schoolgirl: "You see a lot of Asian men, driving around in cars and stuff, smoking draw..." Channel 4 News: "What, coming to the school gates? Gemma Meares: "Yeah, they are come in and sit in.... with their music pumping and stuff.... " Channel 4 News: "What, trying to pick up young girls?" Gemma Meares: "Impress young girls, yeah." Channel 4 News: "Have you seen girls go off with these men?" Gemma Meares: "Er, yeah, I suppose, I've seen lasses getting in cars and driving off with them." We've spoken to two mothers whose daughters became involved with these men. The mothers are afraid of what might happen to them if it's known they've spoken out. They say they've tried to warn their daughters of the dangers these men pose but they believe the men are deliberately targeting impressionable girls some as young as 11 and 12. It is claimed the men meet the girls outside the school and offer them cigarettes, drink and drugs, trying to establish a relationship. "Julie:" "These men are showing you what you see as a good time, tripping off in the cars, driving around in the cars, buying you booze taking you to McDonalds, Burger King throwing money at you., you know like it's no object and it's treating you. In the beginning its like a treat. But I used to say to her in the beginning, nothing in life is free." And it's alleged the girls aren't always treated well. "Mandy:" "At the age of 13 she was regularly taken to Bradford to a flat. At this flat she was introduced to Es to speed and GHB. On 5 occasions I had a phone call in the middle of the night. "I'm on a street corner mum I don't know where I am. I don't feel too well tonight." The mothers say there's no question what the men really want -- they want sex. "Mandy:" "We regard this as, they're paedophiles. It's a grooming. There's a grooming process. Paedophiles -- a paedophile is a man that likes having sex with a child." There's no doubting the mothers concern, but their daughters often don't see any problems with their relationships with these men. And, if the girls are 13 or over the police can't initiate criminal proceedings without a formal complaint - and often the girls wont do that. "Julie:" To them, it's not abuse. To them it's a laugh. They're having fun. They're just having a laugh. Chilling. Why don't you chill mum?" The mothers have given police a list of 57 Asian men who their daughters say are involved. Of course it's not unusual for young men -- of all races -- to seek out younger girlfriends. So is the real reason why people are so concerned about what's happening in Keighley because in this case the men happen to be Asian? Kath Tunstall, Bradford Social Services: "This is a problem of young men exploiting young girls. Regardless of what the minority background is. If this was white men or black girls that is not the issue for us here. This is a child protection issue that we are all working together to tackle. For police and social services the key problem has been the fact that girls often don't believe they are being exploited. Supt. Mark Whyman, West Yorkshire Police: "What I want to do with them as a police officer and a father is arrest people who abuse children who are paedophiles and who engage in hat behaviour. The difficulty we have is evidence, we need the girls because of their ages we need them to complain about what's happening to actually tell us that's happened to them and to do that in statement form and there's been a marked reluctance. We've carried out a very extensive investigation jointly with social services, we've approached the girls who've been named and there's been a marked reluctance among most of them to do that and come forward." That's despite the fact that according to the two mothers we've spoken to sometimes this goes far beyond consensual sex within relationships. Both say their daughters have been gang raped -- one at the age of 13. "Mandy:" "On the fourth or fifth time of them going cruising and having a drink, her and a friend were taken to a flat, the flat door's locked, sat down drinking, the drink is spiced with GHB. All 4 men -- my daughter is taken by all four men in turn. Her whole body was shaking and she couldn't stop shaking from the effects of the drugs that she were given. My daughter said "You know what will happen mum, if we go to the police, you know what will happen". And I do know because I've had Asian men on the phone to me saying that if I send police to their house one more time then they will petrol bomb my house. Supt. Mark Whyman, West Yorkshire Police: "The mothers we've spoken to say their daughters have been raped, sometimes gang-raped, these are incredibly serious offences are they not, surely there's something the police can do if there widespread allegations of this kind of behaviour? The difficulty is these are allegations, the evidence is rather thin on the ground. However there are a variety of things we have done we have affected arrests we have arrested an offender for a very serious sexual offence and that will come to court and I'm sure when it's revealed what's actually gone on there that there will be preventative aspects. We're also doing disruptive activity, that means that some of these men are criminals, they are actually known to us anyway they are engaging in other criminal activity and there's things we can do with them in relation to enforcing the law, perhaps in relation to the misuse of drugs act and in other areas which will help." Meanwhile social services are working with the girls to try to alert them to the dangers. The local MP applauds the work that's being done but is worried that by maintaining that race is not an issue, police and social services are failing to understand the real nature of the problem. Anne Cryer MP, Keighley "I believe there is a very strong cultural reason, it's nothing to do with the religion lets make it quite clear, its to do with the Asian culture, which wants these young men to marry these very young girls from their village, usually in Mayapore, and as with any other young men, they are seeking relationships elsewhere, and the sophisticated white woman wouldn't have anything to do with them because they understand that at the end of the day, they are just seeking sex not genuine relationships and therefore the only outlet left to them is to look for very young girls through this organised sex ring that we are seeing in Keighley." Anne Cryer's a controversial figure who's attracted flak in the past for her position on arranged marriages. The Asian leaders Channel 4 News spoke to unreservedly condemn what's been happening but they also reject her suggestion of a cultural explanation. Khadim Hussain, Community Leader: "The statistics show at the moment that its the Asian men and white girls, but the problem isn't just confined to that group, there are other groups as well. My own information is there are Asian on Asian and white on white not being picked up and we are having discussions with the authorities to actually look at the broader picture and wider picture and try to address the issue as a problem which is not just confined to Asian...." Channel 4 News: "Well the problem is that in the police investigation all the men the girls were naming were Asian men. I mean, is there some reason, a cultural reason maybe, why Asian men would seek out girls in this way? Khadim Hussain, Community Leader: "I don't think so that culture has anything to do with it, if anything we can put a reason behind it is that the fact that if you look at the psychology of these young people, if you do any research, most of those young people are with no skills or with very little skills background. And probably they are they ones who have dropped out of the system." The mothers say the fact the men are Asian isn't an issue for them -- they say they just want this abuse stopped. They met David Blunkett in person to argue that if criminal proceedings can't be brought because their daughters won't make complaints to the police then the law needs changing. "Mandy": We've stuck with it and we're determined to get a change in the law to enable parents to have the right to be the complainant. When you're daughter is being used and abused and drugged and raped by these men, this is, at the end of the day, that is what we want out of this. We want a change in the law." Today the Home Office told Channel 4 News that the Criminal Justice Bill currently before Parliament includes provision to make reported evidence or "hearsay" evidence more readily admissible. As far as the mothers are concerned the change can't come soon enough.
GUN POSTER TERROR
A RADICAL Islamic group is causing fear in south Manchester by distributing leaflets bearing a picture of a semi-automatic gun.
Hundreds of the leaflets have been pushed through letter boxes in Longsight, Levenshulme and Rusholme advertising a meeting of the Al-Muhajiroun organisation - which supports Jihad, or holy war - and aims to create a worldwide Islamic state.
The purple A5 leaflets are emblazoned with the words `JIHAD in Manchester?' and below them is the picture of an Uzi 9mm gun.
Worried residents are frightened they could incite violence. A 65-year-old disabled woman from Longsight said: "It is frightening, I'm getting leaflets like this delivered all the time and I'm starting to get scared.
For the full story go to:
www.manchesteronline.co.uk/n...tory=21001.html
You may also visit the group's website at: www.almuhajiroun.com
It is called 'FOCUS ON JIHAD' and contains the noteworthy sentence 'Jihad is the pinnacle of Islam'. The group was kicked out by their German host recently and have now relocated to Britain.
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The Punishment for criticising Islam
Punishment includes
Islam indoctrination
Canadian to resume hate-crimes sentence under Muslim direction
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Posted: October 31, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Art Moore
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
An Ontario man convicted of promoting hatred against Muslims says his community-service sentence has included indoctrination into Islam.
After losing an appeal to Canada's Supreme Court on Oct. 17, Mark Harding must resume his sentence of two years probation and 340 hours of community service under the direction of Mohammad Ashraf, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga, Ont.
Harding, 47, said he had one session under Ashraf in 1998 before an appeal process stayed the sentence.
Ashraf, according to Harding, said that instead of licking stamps and stuffing envelopes, "it would be better if you learned about Islam."
The cleric made it clear, Harding recalled in an interview with WorldNetDaily, that during the sessions nothing negative could be said about Islam or its prophet, Muhammad.
"He said he was my supervisor, and if I didn't follow what he said, he would send me back to jail," recounted Harding, who had been prevented from speaking publicly about his case under a gag order.
Harding was convicted in 1998 on federal hate-crimes charges stemming from a June 1997 incident in which he distributed pamphlets outside a public high school, Weston Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Harding – who said that until that point he spent most of his time evangelizing Muslims – was protesting the school's policy of setting aside a room for Muslim students to pray during school hours.
In one of his pamphlets, Harding listed atrocities committed by Muslims in foreign lands to back his assertion that Canadians should be wary of local Muslims.
The pamphlet said: "The Muslims who commit these crimes are no different than the Muslim believers living here in Toronto. Their beliefs are based on the Quran. They sound peaceful, but underneath their false sheep's clothing are raging wolves seeking whom they may devour. And Toronto is definitely on their hit list."
"The point I was trying to make is you shouldn't have a violent religion like Islam allowed in a school when Christianity or Hinduism or Buddhism is not allowed," he told WND.
Harding, an evangelical Protestant, insists he has love rather than hatred toward Muslims and wants to see them go to heaven.
A lawyer for Harding, Jasmine Akbaralli, says she is trying to obtain permission for her client to serve out his sentence in an Islamic community closer to his current home in Chesley, Ont., north of Toronto and about a three-hour drive from the Islamic Society of North America.
The plea is based on humanitarian grounds, she said, due to her client's poor health.
Harding said he has suffered four heart attacks since 1997, and he and his wife and two children are penniless because his health has prevented him from maintaining his trade as a cabinetmaker.
Akbaralli said she would not comment on Harding's previous experience with Ashraf, noting that she was not representing him at the time. Calls to Ashraf and others at the Islamic Society of North America on Tuesday and Wednesday were not returned.
Understanding Islam
During his 1998 session with Ashraf, Harding was told to read a book called Towards Understanding Islam, by Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi.
On page 12 of the book, Harding noted, it gives a description of a "kafir," or infidel, a person who does not follow Islam.
"Such a man ... will spread confusion and disorder on the earth," the book says. "He will without the least compunction, shed blood, violate other men's rights, be cruel to them, and create disorder and destruction in the world. His perverted thoughts and ambitions, his blurred vision and disturbed scale of values, and his evil-spelling activities would make life bitter for him and for all around him."
"It was obvious that he intended to make sure I understood that I was a kafir," Harding said of Ashraf.
Harding's 1998 conviction on three counts of willfully promoting hatred was commended by Canadian Muslims.
"The verdict sends a message to Christians, Muslims and Jews that personal views of that nature can't be allowed in a public forum," said Shahina Siddiqui, coordinator of community relations and social services for the Manitoba Islamic Association, in a report by the Canadian evangelical publication Christian Week. "There's a fine line between freedom of expression and hatred. Harding crossed that line."
Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said after the verdict that "spreading hate is against Canadian values and against Canadian law, and it doesn't matter the group that is victimized."
The verdict was not a suppression of free speech, Elmasry insisted, according to Alberta Report magazine, arguing that he would not consider scholarly books in the library that criticize Islam to be hate literature. Harding "is just trying to stereotype and put out hate literature, and he was found guilty by the courts," he said.
Harding asserted at the time that he meant to criticize only Islamic terrorists, not all Muslims. But he added that faithful Muslims will always engage in jihad, or holy war, against non-Muslims because it is required by Islamic teachings.
Many Muslim scholars in North America argue that jihad essentially means "struggle" and is not necessarily violent.
But Harding said that after his case became public, he no longer felt safe, due to threats from Muslims. When he entered court for the first time for his trial, he required police protection as a large crowd of Muslims gathered, with some chanting, "Infidels, you will burn in hell."
Harding said he received many death threats among more than 3,000 hate-filled calls that came to his answering service in 1997. Similar calls were received by police and the Ontario attorney general, he said.
"I had a call from someone who said they were from (Louis) Farrakhan's (Nation of Islam) group, and they were going to break my legs," he said. "Another caller said he would rip out my testicles."
The Islamic Society of North America in Canada, where Harding is required to fulfill his community service, describes itself as a "broad-based unity of Muslims and Islamic organizations committed to the mission and movement of Islam: nurturing a way of life in the light of the guidance from the Quran and Sunnah for establishing a vibrant presence of Muslims in Canada."
The organization shares facilities with the Canadian Council on Islamic Relations, an affiliate of the controversial Council on Islamic-American Relations, or CAIR, in Washington, D.C.
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper indicated in a 1993 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he wants to see the United States become a Muslim country.
"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the Star Tribune. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."
Hate crimes
Judge Sidney B. Linden's 1998 ruling against Harding was based on Canada's genocide and hate-crimes law. The judge determined he was guilty of "false allegations about the adherents of Islam calculated to arouse fear and hatred of them in all non-Muslim people."
The law bars a public statement that "willfully promotes hatred" against groups "distinguished by color, race, religion or ethnic origin." The code has an article that excuses statements expressed in "good faith," including religious expression. But the trial judge found that Harding had either "tried to incite hatred or was willfully blind to it," according to lawyer Akbaralli.
Canadian Christian groups are fighting a bill reinstated this month by a homosexual parliament member that would add "sexual orientation" as a protected category in the hate-crimes statutes. Known previously as bill C-415, it is now registered as C-250.
Evangelicals have supported Harding in principle, though many have signaled their opposition to his aggressive tactics or have expressed reservations.
Harding said he's received support from Christians who immigrated to Canada from Muslim countries, where minority religions experience discrimination and persecution.
"I have a lot of Pakistani and Egyptian friends helping me through this because they understand what Islam is all about," he said. "When they heard about me in the news, they called to offer their support."
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