Last week, three men were found guilty of raping young girls in Rotherham. The rapes took place 25 years ago, but the wheels of justice move very slowly for grooming gang offenders. The three men are Sageer Hussain (who is already in prison for other rape offences), Kesur Ajaib and Mohammaed Makhmood.
The first girl was 14 years old when she was raped in 1999 by Ajab and Makhmood. Ajaib made conversation with her and plied her with alcohol before luring her into an alleyway where he raped her. Makhmood raped her on another occasion after leading her to a nearby graveyard.
The second girl was also aged 14 at the time and was led down an alleyway by Hussain who threatened not to let her out unless she had sex with him. When she refused, he raped her.
The National Crime Agency press release states that the girls were “subjected to humiliation and verbal abuse.” It praises their courage in coming forward and speaking the truth. The men will not be sentenced till November.
Back in 2016, three brothers of Sageer Hussain — Arshid Hussain, Basharat Hussain, and Bannarus Hussain, known as Ash, Bash, and Bono — were convicted of grooming gang rape offences and sentenced to 35 years, 25 years and 19 years respectively. Their uncle was also sentenced for 10 years.
In 2014, Sageer defended his brother Ash in a Channel 4 interview. He blamed the girls for screaming “rape” or “groomed” after having sex on a night out. He also blamed social workers for letting young girls out at night. He claimed: “We forbid that stuff, we wouldn’t allow it.”
Sammy Woodhouse was the original whistleblower of the notorious grooming gangs in Rotherham. She was a victim of Ash Hussain, who raped and groomed her for most of her teenage years. She said:
I’d be seen by police on a daily basis with him. They would pull him over, ask how he was, he never had any tax or insurance, they didn’t care. They didn’t suggest that a 14 and a 24 year old was wrong. I lied to protect him too and I was the one who got the criminal record when they found us in bed once and charged me for having a baton in my bag.
Imagine, her abuser caught in bed with an underage girl, and they don’t charge him — but they charge her!
This week, it was reported that some police officers also abused children who were victims of these grooming gangs. One victim says she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving police officer in a marked car. He threatened to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply. PC Hassan Ali is named as one of the perpetrators. He died in 2015 following a car crash. He is alleged to have also been involved in supplying drugs. Police corruption has long been suspected in these crimes, but now actual involvement in the abuse is alleged by five victims. No police officer has yet been disciplined or convicted for corruption in relation to grooming gangs. This is precisely why a full national inquiry is needed.
Later, Sammy says Ash’s family got involved. They wanted to take her eldest son (conceived by rape) because:
They wanted to convert him to Islam. They wanted my son to have an arranged marriage. My son was excited he was going to marry his cousin and be a daddy. They told him I was a white slag.
One could tell from the names that these convicts are most likely Muslims, but from this we know for sure that the whole family was Muslim and wanted to apply Islamic principles. To coach the son and convert him to Islam. They clearly take their faith seriously.
I have written before that we can’t neglect the connection between grooming gangs and elements of Islam, with its theological justification of sexual abuse of non-Muslim girls. Justice has finally caught up with this abusive Muslim family. It took a while.
Meanwhile, also last week it emerged that police in Rotherham took time out from dealing with actual crimes to arrest a Christian street preacher for asking a question of a member of the public about what the Qur’an says.
Former miner, John Steele, has preached the gospel in public for 25 years without incident. That day he had a conversation with a Muslim woman wearing a hijab at a public awareness stall offering support to Muslim women experiencing domestic abuse.
Mr Steele asked the woman what she made of the fact that the Qur’an allows husbands to beat their wives. He was referring to Q 4:34 which says:
“Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.” (Pickthall translation)
This is quite a reasonable question to ask given the circumstances. Someone at a public awareness stall is inviting conversation. The focus on Muslim women invites a question about Islam. Mr Steele has done nothing wrong in engaging her in a conversation about Islamic teaching relevant to her public awareness campaign.
It is all the more relevant when you realise that one Rotherham grooming gang survivor has said that this verse was quoted to her “many times”. Referring to the very same verse, she said: “This was often quoted to me before they beat me with their hands.” This, then, is one of those verses in the Qur’an used to justify some of the grooming gang abuse.
Mr Steele compared that verse in the Qur’an with the instruction in the Bible for husbands to love their wives in the same way that Jesus loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). He deliberately entered into this conversation as an avenue to present the gospel and to contrast Christianity with Islam.
The conversation was brief and uneventful. But the Muslim woman reported him to the police claiming she was distressed by what he said.
Just one hour later, Mr Steele found himself surrounded by four police officers demanding his personal details and saying he was clearly guilty of a non-crime hate incident. Body-worn video camera footage of his encounter with the police can be viewed. The logic of the police officers is that since the woman claimed she had been frightened and threatened, he must have committed a non-crime hate incident. Since she claimed to have felt threatened, he must have been anti-social. Mr Steele refused to give his details because he didn’t want to admit to being guilty of anything. A police officer stated:
We’re saying you’ve behaved in an antisocial manner, because she’s felt harassed, alarmed or distressed by your behaviour.
The police did not witness the conversation themselves. In their logic anyone can report feeling “harassed, alarmed or distressed” by what you say, and that instantly makes you guilty of anti-social behaviour.
On refusing to give his details, Mr Steele was arrested under Section 50 of the Police Reform Act 2022 and led away to a police car. At the police station he was detained, fingerprinted, and DNA-swabbed. The Crown Prosecution Service later discontinued the case, stating that prosecution was “not needed in the public interest.”
Earlier this month, Muhbeen Hussain, also from Rotherham, was awarded an MBE for “services to integration” and “cohesion”. Back in 2015, Muhbeen called on Muslims in Rotherham to boycott the police. He called for individual Muslims and institutions who cooperate with the police to be shunned and boycotted themselves by the Muslim community. This was in response to the grooming gang scandal in the town. He claimed it was a “pernicious lie” that the police had failed to act on grooming gang allegations “because of fears of being called racist.” How can it be justifiable for this man to be awarded an MBE for “services to integration” and “cohesion” then?
Muhbeen Hussain also acts as secretariat for the APPG on British Muslims and was co-creator of the original report calling for a controversial definition of Islamophobia which would severely curtail free speech in relation to Islam. Hardly an act of promoting community cohesion. In fact, privileging Islam with special protections in this way will certainly harm community cohesion.
The contrast in treatment could not be sharper. On the one hand, you have a Muslim child rapist in Rotherham who is not arrested when caught in bed with an underage girl. On the other hand, you have a Muslim man who has called for boycotting the police over grooming gangs and who has pushed for effectively an Islamic blasphemy code, who is awarded an MBE. Then there’s the Christian preacher who is surrounded by four police within an hour of a conversation in which he raised a question about the Qur’an, and subsequently arrested.
This all supports the narrative of two-tier policing and two-tier justice.
Let me propose four simple solutions that would actually help community cohesion:
- Arrest anyone caught committing a crime, no matter what their ethnicity or religion. This requires culture change and enforcement with penalties for police turning a blind eye.
- Abolish non-crime hate incidents — they are just not crimes so the police should leave well alone. They only increase community cohesion by causing the police to arrest people for what they say, rather than defending their free speech.
- Protect free speech — including the right to openly raise questions and criticise other religions. No-one should ever be arrested for criticising another religion.
- Don’t reward people who have acted against community cohesion. How does it promote community cohesion to award an MBE to someone who encouraged boycotting the police and who wants an Islamic blasphemy code? What kind of message does that send?
These things are really not that difficult. The government could enforce them almost overnight and immediately boost respect for the law and for the police. They would in fact help community cohesion, when current policies are harming it.
Sadly, while it is not difficult, it does require political will and bravery to enforce these things. Two qualities I have not seen in our political leadership for a while. What this government is intent on doing instead is adopting an official definition of Islamophobia. This will only make things worse. If that happens there will be even more arrests of street preachers. People will also start losing their jobs for saying something someone perceives as Islamophobic. We will have, in effect, an Islamic blasphemy code, and yet more two-tier policing. Apparently, that is what this government wants.
