Anger over UK MP's abuse comments

[din]

Europe
Anger over UK MP's abuse comments
Outcry follows politician's comments that some British Pakistanis see white girls as "easy meat".

Last Modified: 08 Jan 2011 17:51 GMT


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Jack Straw's comments have prompted anger from Britain's Pakistani population [GALLO/GETTY] A senior UK politician has found himself accused of stereotyping British Pakistani men after he said that some of them saw white girls as "easy meat" for sexual abuse and called for the Pakistani community to be more open about the issue.
The comments by Jack Straw, a former interior minister, came after a UK court jailed two British Pakistani men for raping and abusing several girls aged between 12 and 18.
The British Pakistani community reacted angrily on Saturday to what many see as the stereotyping of a whole community.
Mohammed Shafiq, who heads the Ramadhan Foundation, a UK-based Muslim youth group, told Al Jazeera that Straw's comments were "naive and very stupid and irresponsible".
"Ninety-five per cent of child abuse in this country is committed by white people and we do not say that this is ingrained within white communities," he said.
"There is a perception among criminal gangs that white teenagers are less valuable than their own daughters and their own sisters ... they are criminal gangs, they don't represent any community or any faith."
But he added: "We need to focus back on the victims of these crimes and not the political implications of a politician making comments."
'Vulnerable girls'
Straw, who was the focus of another media storm in 2006 when he said that Muslim women should not wear veils that fully covered their face, made his comments in an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme.
"Pakistanis, let's be clear, are not the only people who commit sexual offences, and overwhelmingly the sex offenders' wings of prisons are full of white sex offenders," he said.
"But there is a specific problem which involves Pakistani heritage men ... who target vulnerable, young white girls.
"These young men are in a western society, in any event, they act like any other young men ... but Pakistani heritage girls are off-limits and they are expected to marry a Pakistani girl from Pakistan, typically.
"So they then seek other avenues and they see these young women, white girls who are vulnerable, some of them in care ... who they think are easy meat."
His comments followed the sentencing by a British crown court on Friday of Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, the ringleaders of a mainly Asian gang that targeted and abused vulnerable girls.
Many of the victims were given alcohol or drugs before being forced to have sex in cars and hotels.
Saddique was jailed for at least 11 years and Liaqat was given a minimum sentence of eight years. Six other men had already been sentenced in connection with the case.
Straw's comments have drawn criticism from other politicians, including Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee.

Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies


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Topics in this article People

• Jack Straw
• Mohammed Liaqat
• Abid Saddique
• Keith Vaz
• Mohammed Shafiq

Country

• United Kingdom
• Pakistan
• Britain

Organisation

• British court
• UK MP
• Ramadhan Foundation

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[Nora]

pakistani muslims are the worse muslims ever

[din]

Salam , Naatki . Respect All Muslims Please ... We Also Have A Lot Of Good Muslims In Pakistan . If You Have Something Bad To Say Keep It To Yourself . There's Good & Bad People In Everybody . In Every Countries We Cant Go By Race Countries . We Don't Wanna Hurt People Feelings In Pashtun Forums . People Have Been Raise In Pakistan Or Born , Live In Pakistan . They Might Get Really Offended ! We Should Follows All PF Rules . Embrace It ! Thank You Everywhere

[kakargirl]

nakti excuse me but in uk even afghans pahktun khwa indians bangalis people to the english are all addressed as pakis so this is to all , what jack straw needs to do is monitor the behavior of there girls who throw them selves at muslim boys following them around like puppys these boys hes talking about they use their own too so i dont know what the difference is there are so many half caste children being born with no marriage even muslim children makes you think, its not called broken britain for nothing but this .

[drona]

Din,

Statistically speaking, a large number of Pakistanis are involved in violent crimes especially of sexual nature. Clearly there is a problem. Rather than discussing the problem openly, if you are going to sweep it under the carpet because it is going to "hurt" the feelings of somebody, than you are only going to make the problem worse .

kakargirl,
So you are blaming 13-15 year old girl who are vulnerable to such abuse for their own exploitation ? These are not boys, they are grown men older than 20 yrs. If they are involved in such crimes, they are not very good Muslims and you shouldn't be defending them.

[kakargirl]

Din,

Statistically speaking, the number of Pakistanis involved in violent crimes especially of sexual nature is a lot higher [proportionally] than other ethnicities in UK. Clearly there is a problem. Rather than discussing the problem openly, if you are going to sweep it under the carpet because it is going to "hurt" the feelings of somebody, than you are only going to make the problem worse .

kakargirl,
So you are blaming 13-15 year old girl who are vulnerable to such abuse for their own exploitation ? These are not boys, they are grown men older than 20 yrs. If they are involved in such crimes, they are not very good Muslims and you shouldn't be defending them.

i dont think you understand do you to the uk english even you are a pakistani whats the biggest swear in uk( paki )its written every where iv seen it on hindu temples iv seen on sikh temples iv seen it mosques iv seen it asian areas get over your self im not blaming the girls but its the culture average english girls start having a sexual relationship at9 to 11 which is sick and even muslim girls and other cultures are catching up now so broken britain it is it was called broken britain a few months ago by david camaran, and who said muslim are good and i dont call them muslims if they get up to this stuff but for the english your all pakistanis these boys are using muslims girls too so jack straw is wrong any girl is getting used

[IamDZJ]

i have a white friend who told me something the other day. her daughter who is 15 year old got slapped by her kashmiri boy friend who is 21 year old for refusing to go out with him anymore. he called her mother and explained to her how he wants them to continue going out so someday when he does asks his parents to ask her hand in marriage for him, they understand the seriousness of the relationship between their son and his girlfriend.[understandable]
this girl's mother tells me that she doesn't want her daughter seeing this guy anymore because (a) he is abusive. (b)even though his intentions are well, she doesn't want her daughter being committed to someone at such a young age.[understandable]
asides from the guy slapping this girl, i don't think either one of them is wrong. when you allow your child to have a 'fun' but not serious relationship with someone of the opposite gender you have got to prepare yourself for the consequences. nothing is wrong with either one of them. it's not about being brown or white. you just have to make sure that both of you are clear on what you want from a relationship. specially when you come from two extremely opposite cultures UNLESS THAT IS THE VERY LAST THING IN YOUR MIND IN WHICH CASE, I AM SORRY BUT YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF... and a poor judgment is a poor judgment. you either love someone or you don't... you can't just throw in the word 'rape' to get media's sympathy.
not to mention, european girls are not 'naive' by any means.

[randolph85]

the western culture of girls being *****s is alive and well. had she been a professional ***** and the paki paying a few bucks to have his way with her, the gov't wouldnt have a problem with it.

[torkham]

the british politician has sterotyped pakistani youn men by making a sweeping generalisation - the words uttered were without thought for a man of his position.

like someone saying black people are lazy or criminal.

[drona]

the western culture of girls being *****s is alive and well. had she been a professional ***** and the paki paying a few bucks to have his way with her, the gov't wouldnt have a problem with it.

The girls involved are less than 16 yrs old. Some are as young as 12. I think legal definition for an individual having sex with such "wh0res" is statuary rape, even if he pays them.

[Manzareh]

Din,

Statistically speaking, a large number of Pakistanis are involved in violent crimes especially of sexual nature. Clearly there is a problem. Rather than discussing the problem openly, if you are going to sweep it under the carpet because it is going to "hurt" the feelings of somebody, than you are only going to make the problem worse .

kakargirl,
So you are blaming 13-15 year old girl who are vulnerable to such abuse for their own exploitation ? These are not boys, they are grown men older than 20 yrs. If they are involved in such crimes, they are not very good Muslims and you shouldn't be defending them.

Drona do you throw acid over a girls face if she doesnt except your hand in marriage?? afterall you are a indian so you must do. see thats how stupid your comments sound, i guess you never read the article apart from the first two lines as it has answered your remarks about "sweeping it under the carpet" we should not sweep anything under the carpet including the things that indians do. and like kakagirl told you a 'paki' in england is anyone brown not just a pakistani, hell even a afghanistani person is classed under a 'paki' here. dude you come from a country were there is the biggest gender bias in the world do you know how many millions of babies are aborted after finding out that it is going to be a girl?? sweep your own crap up before your concerned about others sweeping theirs up.

[Manzareh]

pakistani muslims are the worse muslims ever

who are the best muslims?

[drona]

Dear Manzreh,

It is a well established fact that billions of girls are aborted in India, and due to the skewed ratio, most of the Indian men have turned homos resulting in rampant incidence of AIDS in that godforsaken country. Since, even ignoramuses know about this means that these problems are not swept under but are discussed openly and candidly.

But this thread is not about India, is it ?

@topic

The very fact that Afghans and Indians are so often confused for Pakistanis should make us more concerned about these criminal tendencies amongst the Pakistanis. As the actions of these few Pakistanis will greatly swell the ranks of the BNP supporters which can have very negative repercussions for all brown ethnicities living in Britain.

[randolph85]

The girls involved are less than 16 yrs old. Some are as young as 12. I think legal definition for an individual having sex with such "wh0res" is statuary rape, even if he pays them.

what difference does it make? a girl who puts herself in that position is asking for it, age is not an excuse. where are their parents? western girls are taught by their surroundings to be easy and "modern" at a young age. of course the parents don't care until something actually happens because they are stupid and naive, or simply don't care at all.

western parents don't install decent values into their children which is why this kind of stuff happens. the world is full of crazy ish, if someone walks down a dark ally in a bad neighborhood at night and something happens to them, i am more inclined to say "told ya so"

[drona]

Randolph85,

The immigrants leave their pious, Utopian countries to live in the decadent West by their own free will. Nobody forced them to. Now they must also follow the laws made by the morally degenerate white majority. If they don't like these laws than they are more than welcome to leave UK and go back to their own morally superior country or change these laws constitutionally.

So, in UK it is illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor, even if she "puts out". Those who do must be severely criticized .