A joint statement by The Network Of Sikh Organisations UK, The Hindu Council UK, The Sikh Media Monitoring Group UK – 30th June 2013.
We welcome last Friday’s Khutba Sermon by 500 Mosques to condemn the sexual grooming of children following last week’s sentencing of the seven Pakistani men of the Oxford Grooming Group. We also welcome the fact that the sermon was delivered in English aimed to target such confused young men. We also welcome that the fact the media has now stopped referring to those convicted as ‘asians.’
Over the last few decades sexual grooming of girls in the Sikh and Hindu communities by males of Pakistani origin has been of serious concern. Sikh and Hindu groups met with the Children’s Commissioner last year conveying the plight of Sikh and Hindu parents whose children had been uprooted from their families due to grooming, but our concerns fell on deaf ears and were surprisingly not included in her final report. Although a significant number of cases involving white child victims have made it to the Courts, the Sikh and Hindu girl victims rarely come forward due to community stigma, yet the parents and victim are left to suffer in silence.
The attitude of showing disrespect towards non-Muslim girls by a small minority of Muslim men through some confused religious sanction needs to be tackled head on by the Mosques. We welcome the initiatives now supported by the Muslim Council of Britain and the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board to help convey the message to the grass roots that such acts are evil and cannot be condoned in any religion. We congratulate leaders of the UK Muslim community on their timely initiative.
Lord Singh of Wimbledon
The Network of Sikh Organisations UK,
Anil Bhanot OBE
The Hindu Council UK,
Ashish Joshi
The Sikh Media Monitoring Group UK
For further information please contact:
Ashish Joshi
Spokesperson
Tel: 07917 633186
Email: Ashujoshi11@yahoo.co.uk