Rotherham, Rochdale, and the Racialised Threat of the ‘Muslim Grooming Gang’

Abstract

For over a decade, British Muslims have been at the forefront of political, media and societal concerns in regards to terrorism, radicalisation, women's rights, segregation and, most recently, the sexual exploitation and abuse of young women. Demonised, marginalised and criminalised due to inflammatory political rhetoric, inaccurate, irresponsible and sensationalist media reporting, discriminatory counter terrorism policies and legislation and state surveillance, British Muslims have emerged as a perceived racialised threat. This has continued apace with the onset of the Rochdale and Rotherham 'grooming' child sexual abuse scandals which in popular discourse have been dominated by representations focusing on race, ethnicity and the dangerous masculinities of Muslim men. This disproportionate and racist narrative served to both frame and limit the debate relating to the sexual exploitation and violence experienced by young female victims at a pivotal moment when the issue had been brought to national attention. This article compares and contrasts the representations and discourse of racialised and non-racialised reporting of child sexual abuse and situates the 'grooming' scandals in the context of anti-Muslim racism. It argues that the development of the British Muslim as a racialised threat is a current and on-going legacy of colonialism in which this group experiences discriminatory 'othering' processes resulting in their marginalisation.

‘Islamophobia Kills’. But Where Does it Come From?

“…There is not room here to discuss these UK cases; suffice to note, there is ample evidence that such egregious crimes are not unique to Muslim communities in Britain, and that there is nothing inherently 'Muslim' about them. The Islamophobia of the public discussion of these cases has been well analysed by Tufail (2015Tufail ( , 2018, Salter and Dagistanli (2015) and Patel (2018). It is demonstrable that the racialised reporting of both the Australian and the British cases motivated repeated instances of Islamophobic hate crime, including murder, in both IJCJ&SD 83 www.crimejusticejournal.com 2020 9(2)…”

Challenging the racialization of child sexual exploitation: Muslim men, racism and belonging in Rotherham

“…On-street grooming emerged in the UK as a general descriptor for a wide range of major criminal offences involving prostituting, trafficking and abusing mainly girls and young women. It is a model of offending in which Muslim men, particularly of Pakistani origin, are seen as disproportionately involved (Cockbain, 2013;Tufail, 2015). In a series of extensively reported cases, men have been found guilty of a variety of very serious crimes, including rape, false imprisonment, sexual assault and sexual activity with a child.…”

“…In a series of extensively reported cases, men have been found guilty of a variety of very serious crimes, including rape, false imprisonment, sexual assault and sexual activity with a child. These have attracted sustained media and public attention, feeding into broader debates about Muslim men as a racial crime threat (Cockbain, 2013;Tufail, 2015).…”

“…Racial meanings have been invoked in accounts of Muslim men s involvement in child sexual exploitation by foregrounding the culture and ethnicity of offenders and identifying it as key to understanding their offending and statutory authorities inadequate response to it (Cockbain, 2013;Tufail, 2015). Culture and ethnicity do the work of racialising, without explicit mention of religion (Garner, 2010;Murji and Solomos, 2005:3).…”

“…Newspaper headlines such as Revealed: conspiracy of silence on UK sex gangs. Most convicted offenders of Pakistani heritage (Norfolk, 2011), Why Asians set sights on white girls for fun (Martin, 2011) and British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls and its time we faced up to it (Champion, 2017) demonstrate attention drawn to offenders ethnic background, which has been seen as a key, relevant factor in explaining both men s involvement and the inadequate response of statutory authorities to exploitation cases (Cockbain, 2013 andTufail, 2015). They illustrate how the categories Muslim, Asian and Pakistani have been conflated and used inter-changeably to identify offenders (Cockbain, 2013).…”