Aituk7
Striker
Maajid Nawaz powerfully calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs
Maajid Nawaz is calling for a national inquiry, similar to the one into Stephen Lawrence's murder, into grooming gangs in the United Kingdom.
www.lbc.co.uk
Maajid Nawaz recalled Stephen Lawrence's murder and the Macpherson Inquiry that followed.
He noted that the Macpherson report "coined the phrase 'institutional racism', and shifted the debate in this country around race permanently and forever.
Speaking of the grooming gangs scandals 27 cities, he said: "This grooming gang scandal must be investigated on a national level in the same way because this is institutional mysogyny.
He continued: "The fear ... of anti-Muslim bigotry must never be an excuse to allow underage girls to be raped and abused in this way. But it was.
Think of that. Imagine that 27 cities and counting... because I can guarantee you we haven't heard the end of this yet. Imagine the thousands of victims. Imagine the impunity with which these men must have been acting.
Maajid Nawaz then said: "Don't tell me that their Muslim identity had nothing to do with this.
"I have lived and breathed this community all of my life. I can guarantee you that it's not the cause but a factor in the way in which these girls was treated was the culture of these men and as part of that culture is their religious attitude towards non-Muslim."
He asked: "Now who will lead, who will defend the voiceless in this national scandal? Who will lead the case for saying we need a national inquiry into how this would have been tolerated for so long?"
He later said: "Now, finally, the independent police watchdog has said it was covered up by the police. Well, that's not good enough.
"We need a statutory inquiry, just like that was done with Stephen Lawrence, a statutory inquiry to investigate what exactly went wrong and how this will avoid be avoided in the future."
I couldn't agree with him more and I wish him all the luck in putting pressure on the state to bring about this national inquiry.
27 cities now and counting, I didn't even realise it was that many. How can we as a nation be in any way proud of our efforts at multiculturalism, equality for females and most importantly looking after children if this type of crime can be repeated en-masse up and down the country with impunity.
Maajid was involved in the group that helped properly lay out statistically there was something out of the ordinary going on in the first place and as the prosecutions progress I hope he pressures.... I would choose someone like Andy Burnham after his great work on the Hillsborough Independant Panel and the recent revelations coming out of Manchester regarding this... to then try and force a National Inquiry on the matter.
Heads should roll for this, top to bottom, every police force should be investigated and politicians too for any role they had in covering this up.
And also it's patently obvious more needs to be done in Muslim communities on integration, understanding and education particularly those that come from more conservative Muslim countries like Pakistan and Bangledesh.
I hope this call turns into a campaign and finally into some proper justice.