London: (9th January 2016) The German authorities should be commended for their humanitarian approach with refugees from war torn Syria. They have done a huge service to those genuinely displaced by the war in Syria, and those who want to make a better life for themselves in Europe. But recent disturbing news from Cologne where a mass, planned, rape and sexual assault on New Year’s Eve by a mob of at least 1000 ‘Arab / North African – looking’ males on local women is just the latest in a series of reported cases of the targeting of women by small elements within the Muslim community.
Lessons can be learnt from Britain, where we saw a cowardly reaction from the political elite following several high profile sexual grooming cases of gangs of mainly young, Pakistani males involved in the rape, abuse and trafficking of young white girls in various cities up and down the country. These gangs have also targeted Sikh and Hindu girls and although these cases are rarely reported on – a BBC Television documentary was produced in 2013 to highlight the issue.[1]
There seems to be a pattern emerging where young non-Muslim girls and women in the UK are being targeted by gangs from small elements within the Muslim community – whose attitudes towards their victims seem to show no remorse or guilt.
This problem seems to be more widespread – since reports from ISIS-held territory in the Middle East highlight the sad plight of non-Muslim minorities, in particular the Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq – whose women have been kidnapped en-masse to be used as sex slaves by ISIS extremists.
The UK has legislation against various types of hate crimes – but the acknowledgment that this is another form of hate crime seems to have either gone unnoticed by the authorities or been conveniently ignored for fear of being labelled ‘Islamophobic’ by certain quarters.
Ignoring that a particular problem exists just encourages the perpetrators of these crimes to think that their prejudice towards women from outside their community is all the more justified.It does no justice to the young girls and women who expect protection from the very authorities who don’t seem to investigate WHY these particular women were targeted in the first place.
The problem in Germany and Europe in general needs to be addressed and we hope the authorities have the courage to tackle these issues.
We request the Government to recognise that the targeting of non-Muslim women is a specific problem that exists in the UK and to treat it just as seriously as any other hate crime.
Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon CBE – The Network of Sikh Organisations (UK)
http://nsouk.co.uk/
Anil Bhanot – The Hindu Council UK
http://www.hinducounciluk.org/
Mohan Singh Khalsa – The Sikh Awareness Society (UK)
http://www.sasorg.co.uk/
Ashish Joshi – The Sikh Media Monitoring Group UK
Appendices:
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hXTM7ehvtk
For more information please contact:
Mr Ashish Joshi
Sikh Media Monitoring Group (UK)
Tel:07917 633186