:01:20. > :01:30.who say their local mosques are turning a blind eye to the sexual
:01:30. > :01:30.
:01:30. > :37:37.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2167 seconds
:37:37. > :37:42.Sunday Politics for your washer and Lincolnshire. Coming up, in denial.
:37:42. > :37:47.We have an exclusive report in which Muslim women claimed local mosques
:37:47. > :37:50.are turning a blind eye the sexual grooming of young girls. There are a
:37:50. > :37:56.lot of people who are out of themselves and eye can give you
:37:56. > :37:59.examples of some of them. journalist turned politician who was
:37:59. > :38:02.captured by the Taliban and converted to a slump tells this
:38:02. > :38:12.programme why many women are scared to speak out about the abuse being
:38:12. > :38:17.carried out in their communities. People need the strength to say no.
:38:17. > :38:26.I've wish someone had helped me. guest today is Sarah Champion and
:38:26. > :38:28.Kris Hopkins. I've speak to both of them in a moment but we look at the
:38:28. > :38:35.controversy surrounding street grooming and what is being done to
:38:35. > :38:42.combat the problem. You'll make eye know why have been abused. This
:38:42. > :38:46.video warning of the video -- the dangers of gangs of British
:38:46. > :38:52.Pakistani men preying on vulnerable, usually white girls, was released a
:38:52. > :38:59.few weeks ago. It has been the reaction to an issue that has been
:38:59. > :39:01.happening for a decade or more. It has not been really understood.
:39:01. > :39:05.Investigations by the home affairs committee recognises that a number
:39:05. > :39:10.of different agencies were involved, leading to the dangers of victims
:39:10. > :39:14.slipping through the net. Three years ago, it recommended that each
:39:14. > :39:20.local authority should set up in one building, what they called a
:39:20. > :39:27.multi-agency safeguarding hub. Here professionals and voluntary
:39:27. > :39:30.organisations could come together in one easily accessible site. We
:39:30. > :39:35.contacted 19 local authorities across Europe truck, Lincolnshire
:39:35. > :39:38.and the North Midlands to see how much progress has been made. Eight
:39:38. > :39:42.have established some form of multi-agency approach, although some
:39:42. > :39:46.have not then in place for a long and they might go under different
:39:46. > :39:50.names. Another four are actively working on setting up a centre to
:39:50. > :39:56.bring those local agencies together, although progress does
:39:56. > :40:01.vary. Said in to have no centres are any plans to go down this route. The
:40:01. > :40:06.Justice Minister, Damian Green, town -- told Sunday Politics he is
:40:06. > :40:11.satisfied progress is being made. Until we can assume that grooming is
:40:11. > :40:16.not an issue in any part of the country for any council. Ten years
:40:16. > :40:19.ago, people tended to disbelieve often young teenage girls who were
:40:19. > :40:23.in trouble, may be involved with alcohol and drugs. We now know that
:40:23. > :40:29.was a terrible error and we have seen some of the full court cases
:40:29. > :40:39.that have come up. There will be more to come. -- the full court
:40:39. > :40:42.
:40:42. > :40:48.cases. -- offal. Hundreds of mosques across the country heard a sermon
:40:48. > :40:51.written by a Bradford Imam condemning this shameful -- shameful
:40:51. > :40:55.behaviour of against children. A tiny number of men are involved and
:40:55. > :40:59.it has become an issue for the entire community. Years have been
:41:00. > :41:05.lost because the authorities and media were not listening to earlier
:41:05. > :41:09.warning voices. If they had just given me one ounce of support in the
:41:09. > :41:12.media for the sort of stuff I've was doing, why cannot tell you what a
:41:12. > :41:19.difference it would have made. I've think we would have set out on a
:41:19. > :41:23.road that would have trouble Blake avoided what is happening now.
:41:23. > :41:26.Champion Ann Cryer says if we had listened to her a decade ago there
:41:26. > :41:33.would not be the case as there are now. Political correctness got in
:41:33. > :41:36.the way. Is that accurate? One of the things we have been obsessed by
:41:36. > :41:41.is the fact there have been prosecutions for Asian men, but
:41:41. > :41:45.there have been more prosecutions for white men. What we need to focus
:41:45. > :41:50.on is the children. Children are being abused and unless we do
:41:50. > :41:53.something about it, this will carry on. The minister said he did not
:41:53. > :41:58.seem that concern that a multi-agency approach is going
:41:58. > :42:02.forward. It has to go forward. All areas need a multi-agency approach
:42:02. > :42:08.we cannot deal with this effectively. Kris Hopkins, you
:42:08. > :42:12.caused a stir when you said were groups of Muslim men going around
:42:12. > :42:18.raping white children? Do you stand by that statement? I've certainly
:42:18. > :42:23.do. When it comes to street grooming, the vast majority of
:42:23. > :42:28.perpetrators are people of Pakistani origin. The lady is right in that
:42:28. > :42:32.the vast majority of rapes of children undertaken by white men,
:42:32. > :42:36.but in relation to street grooming, it is separate and this is one of
:42:36. > :42:41.the issues, we keep clouding this up. We need to be frank and
:42:41. > :42:47.purposeful about what we are trying to do. There is an issue in that
:42:47. > :42:50.ridiculous community relating to this model of criminality. He is not
:42:50. > :42:57.mincing his words. Street grooming is a problem largely associated with
:42:57. > :43:01.the British Pakistani community. Is that a point? This is an area which
:43:01. > :43:05.the British media have focused on. It is a problem in the community.
:43:06. > :43:10.This is one model. If we only focus on Asian men street grooming we will
:43:10. > :43:15.miss all the other people. Going through Sheffield courts there is a
:43:15. > :43:22.gang of six people, led by a white woman. Yes, we need to focus on
:43:22. > :43:27.Asians but we need to focus on the whole world. It is going on and we
:43:27. > :43:32.cannot turn a blind eye to it. too obsessed with? We have just
:43:32. > :43:37.heard a sentence of apologies. I'd do not know our police officer who
:43:37. > :43:44.will look on the other direction if they identify someone of any racial
:43:44. > :43:47.creed. You mention in your introduction that one Imam has
:43:47. > :43:53.written one sermon, but we need this conversation in every household and
:43:53. > :43:57.every street. We need everyone to start having this conversation.
:43:57. > :44:02.Fundamentally, we need to empower women because men have failed women
:44:02. > :44:09.in this community and the wider community to address this issue.
:44:09. > :44:13.Let's hear now from Yvonne Ridley, journalist turned politicians who
:44:13. > :44:18.has spoken to a number of Muslim women in Europe sure who claim
:44:18. > :44:27.people in positions of authority are turning a blind eye to the problem
:44:27. > :44:33.of grooming. Released after ten days captivity in Afghanistan in 2001,
:44:33. > :44:37.Yvonne Ridley was captured by the Taliban while working for a national
:44:37. > :44:40.newspaper. Once freed, she kept a promise made to one of her captors
:44:40. > :44:47.to read the Koran. In it, she says she found a religious framework
:44:47. > :44:50.which could be used to empower women, one reason why she converted
:44:50. > :44:55.to Islam. After joining the Respect Party, or she is now President, she
:44:55. > :45:00.stayed in last year's Rather by-election and was appalled to find
:45:00. > :45:05.grooming going on in the town by Pakistani Muslim men. Within the
:45:05. > :45:11.first few hours, by established that grooming and the issue of grooming
:45:11. > :45:17.was a major concern for voters. Not just from the wider community but
:45:17. > :45:22.from the Muslim community as well. Respect Pete the Conservatives and
:45:22. > :45:27.Liberal Democrats to fourth place but that did not put her off. It is
:45:27. > :45:29.pure the large number of court cases are just the tip of the iceberg,
:45:29. > :45:34.while local authorities across England including Ryedale and
:45:34. > :45:40.Hambleton have been found wanting, was recently by a home affairs
:45:40. > :45:50.select committee when it comes to understanding and responding to
:45:50. > :45:51.
:45:51. > :45:57.grooming. This poem was written by a West Yorkshire girl who was 13 when
:45:57. > :46:03.her Pakistani groomer showered her with gifts and then began to beat,
:46:03. > :46:08.rape and enslave her. She told her story to a bond and at one point he
:46:08. > :46:13.tried to hang her from a tree and she thought she was going to die.
:46:13. > :46:18.I've felt safe around him. He started playing mind games with me.
:46:18. > :46:23.He hit me with bottles and locked me in the boot of his car for hours.
:46:23. > :46:27.But we need the support to say no. By which someone had helped me.
:46:27. > :46:32.Yvonne Ridley has attempted to get Muslim women to speak out and
:46:32. > :46:36.finally she brought a small group together, but their identities are
:46:36. > :46:40.ahead in. They spoke openly about the challenges facing the Muslim
:46:40. > :46:44.community. Eye and angry and if people are in denial that is a
:46:44. > :46:49.shame. There are a lot of people at it and eye can give you examples of
:46:49. > :46:56.some of them who are leaders. Eye have heard of 20 of sexual abuse
:46:56. > :47:01.going on, but what can I'd do about it? Me, as one person? If a woman,
:47:01. > :47:06.especially in the slim woman, speaks up eye can be targeted and so can my
:47:06. > :47:11.family. The maze -- the media focuses on the Muslim community all
:47:11. > :47:14.the time but it is calling on everywhere. It is unfair and a white
:47:14. > :47:21.people do not commit this crime at all. You need to understand what is
:47:21. > :47:26.going on. Do you think it would even more helpful if mosque committees
:47:26. > :47:30.reflected the community that is served by that mosque? Men in masks
:47:30. > :47:34.do not think about it. They brush it under the carpet and think let
:47:34. > :47:40.someone else deal with that. They say we only want to deal with the
:47:40. > :47:45.good issues. Yvonne Ridley has joined us and they
:47:45. > :47:52.are joined from London by Ajmal Masroor from the Islamic Society of
:47:52. > :47:59.Britain. Yvonne, were you shocked by some of the responses? Eye was in
:47:59. > :48:05.some ways. What I've was trying to get through, was that the Muslim
:48:05. > :48:11.community must address this issue. It has to be done through the
:48:11. > :48:15.mosques. Unfortunately, most of the mosque committees are a male driven.
:48:15. > :48:23.We need to get more women into these committees and more women involved
:48:23. > :48:30.within the Muslim community. That is the way forward to this problem.
:48:30. > :48:34.What do you make of the comments? Yvonne is right that mosques are
:48:34. > :48:43.mostly male dominated. Our vast majority of mosques in this country
:48:43. > :48:48.do not have space for a ladies to pray. Of course, it is also not
:48:48. > :48:55.friendly to young people and it puts them off mosques very quickly. I'd
:48:55. > :49:05.lead prayers and eye have just come out of a prayer session. Fire eye
:49:05. > :49:08.
:49:08. > :49:14.lead, I'd encourage all communities to participate. -- where eye lead.
:49:14. > :49:19.I'd believe, our children are honourable and unsafe, there is more
:49:19. > :49:24.abuse amongst our children as well as grooming. This is as a result of
:49:24. > :49:27.a total failure when it comes to teaching our children and having the
:49:27. > :49:32.right healthy attitude towards sex and sexuality. We heard in the
:49:33. > :49:38.report that women Yvonne had spoken to said the mosques were turning a
:49:38. > :49:42.blind eye to this awful crime. What can be done? Very simply those
:49:42. > :49:47.mosques need to be cleaned up very quickly. Local communities need to
:49:47. > :49:51.feel empowered through programmes we are doing and there needs to be more
:49:51. > :49:55.discussion and debate so they can get rid of those people running
:49:56. > :49:59.mosques in a tribal style. Mosques should be run democratically. Local
:49:59. > :50:09.people should run them free from interference from those who have lit
:50:09. > :50:11.
:50:12. > :50:15.a goal tested interests. -- politically vested interests. But
:50:15. > :50:22.this is not exclusively happening within the Moslem community. Within
:50:22. > :50:25.the Catholic Church, priests have been found in this trouble. Our
:50:25. > :50:31.issue is that we should stand together and protect our children,
:50:31. > :50:36.no matter where they come from or their religion or ethnicity. Yvonne,
:50:36. > :50:44.what do you make of those comments? In the media point of view, this has
:50:44. > :50:48.been focused on men of British Pakistani origin. Eye and the plant
:50:48. > :50:53.the issue of Roman Catholic priests has been brought up, but it is only
:50:53. > :50:59.when this was brought out into the community, but this was brought out
:50:59. > :51:02.and the Catholic Church was forced to confront the situation. Is the
:51:02. > :51:10.problem being dealt with? We need to do the same in the Muslim community.
:51:10. > :51:17.We need to do the same nationwide. The one common theme in all of this
:51:17. > :51:22.is meant. It is not just Muslim men, it is men of all faiths and no
:51:22. > :51:32.faiths. We have to discover what is happening that they have so little
:51:32. > :51:37.respect for women in their own should be done that is not being
:51:37. > :51:40.done now? First of all, well done to those girls who spoke at Waverley.
:51:40. > :51:46.You could hear the frustration in their comments, they felt there was
:51:46. > :51:51.nowhere to go. If they are victims and need help, then they contact the
:51:51. > :52:01.police or my office and eyeball make sure they get a safe route to law
:52:01. > :52:06.
:52:06. > :52:11.enforcement. -- eye will make sure. And Ann Cryer brought this up in
:52:11. > :52:15.2001 and nothing was done there. The police and the authorities ignored
:52:15. > :52:21.her, as did her own political party, so do not say contact me, eyeball
:52:21. > :52:30.sort this out. This has got to be a wholehearted community effort.
:52:30. > :52:33.Hundreds of mosques took part in the special unprecedented programme. It
:52:33. > :52:41.speaks volumes about how determined Muslims or to crackdown on this
:52:41. > :52:51.issue. I'm not saying eye will solve this. It does need to be a community
:52:51. > :52:53.
:52:53. > :52:58.response. I've had spoken to elders in the mosques. It is about how to
:52:58. > :53:02.be in power women and how do we make sure we have a stronger relationship
:53:02. > :53:06.tween the police and particularly women and girls in that community?
:53:06. > :53:11.How do we give them confidence to speak out? How do we make sure
:53:11. > :53:16.victims are looked after and that the judicial systems and social
:53:17. > :53:21.services work in the right direction? We need to constantly
:53:21. > :53:28.challenge our behaviour and give safe hazards to those victims to get
:53:28. > :53:31.some justice. Your local council, Sarah Champion, was slammed by the
:53:31. > :53:35.home affairs select committee recently, saying it was inexcusably
:53:35. > :53:41.slowed in dealing with the number of grooming cases. How do we know they
:53:41. > :53:46.have got that? There were gaps in provision and support but that was
:53:46. > :53:50.relating back to 2009. Ryedale and Hambleton took the accusations very
:53:50. > :53:53.seriously and we now have a multi-agency approach. I'm concerned
:53:53. > :53:57.with your opening piece that an awful lot of the country does not
:53:57. > :54:01.have this approach. We have talked about communities and it is
:54:01. > :54:06.admirable that mosques are doing something about it, but they cannot
:54:06. > :54:09.work in isolation. It needs to be hospitals which are trained. If a
:54:09. > :54:15.13-year-old girl is presented for abortion, there needs to be people
:54:15. > :54:18.who say it is calling on here? Social services and voluntary
:54:18. > :54:24.organisations and police and education need to be on the team,
:54:24. > :54:28.because it is pulling data together, that we will catch these people.
:54:28. > :54:30.you not think that the public has a right to know what is going on in
:54:30. > :54:39.Ryedale and Hambleton? One prosecution and the council will
:54:39. > :54:48.still not make fully public... 2010 there were five prosecutions,
:54:48. > :54:53.there are 30 four underway at the moment. Your facts are wrong.
:54:53. > :54:59.just going off the report that the camp will not make public. At the
:54:59. > :55:07.end of the day, more than 600 victims. Absolutely, and for each
:55:07. > :55:13.one of those victims, Taiwan to justice. -- eye wants justice. I'd
:55:13. > :55:17.completely agree. Not having a multi-agency approach beans across
:55:17. > :55:21.the country, there will be thousands of children suffering this. You,
:55:21. > :55:29.like me, do not want this happening. We need to be empowering women, but
:55:29. > :55:39.we also need to empower agencies. Why is Ryedale and Hambleton so
:55:39. > :55:41.
:55:41. > :55:45.reticent? We have tried to speak to them. One of the senior Labour
:55:45. > :55:52.councillors called me as lumbar phobic and a this is an election
:55:52. > :56:00.issue. You will understand they do not work for the council, so I'd
:56:00. > :56:04.don't know. But it is in your back yard? Eye will answer your question,
:56:04. > :56:11.if you were let me. I'm working closely with the number of
:56:11. > :56:17.organisations. You are right, there is not enough going on and every
:56:17. > :56:21.single child needs to be protected. It is not only my local area for
:56:21. > :56:25.this is happening, it is across the country and if you keep on focusing
:56:25. > :56:34.in one place, it is one of the places that has a multi-agency
:56:34. > :56:40.approach, then I'd think you're going in the wrong direction.
:56:40. > :56:46.do you make of Chris Hopkins point that there is a clear cultural
:56:46. > :56:50.problem here? The cultural problem about sex and sexuality is actually
:56:50. > :56:56.for the whole community, the Muslim community and noncommunity. --
:56:56. > :57:02.non-Muslim. Sex is not taught with responsibility or any relationship
:57:02. > :57:07.aspects to it. Sex has become mechanised. As long as she -- it
:57:07. > :57:16.gives you pleasure, you can do it as much as you like. The pornography
:57:16. > :57:24.that is prevalent in our society, it is causing havoc in the minds of
:57:24. > :57:28.young people. There should be an overhaul of our attitudes to sex
:57:28. > :57:33.education and our mentality and behaviour towards the opposite sex.
:57:33. > :57:37.Religion or no religion, these criminals do not do any of these
:57:37. > :57:42.criminal activities using religion as an excuse or a cover. They do it
:57:43. > :57:46.because they are criminal, twisted and sick. We need to protect our
:57:46. > :57:50.children, we need to protect everyone from every background and
:57:50. > :57:56.that can only be done when we are united and stop blaming one another
:57:56. > :57:59.and look at the problems as a problem and find a solution which is
:57:59. > :58:06.collect abandoned because of us stop Kris Hopkins are you satisfied the
:58:06. > :58:10.Muslim community is doing enough to address this problem? It is specific
:58:10. > :58:13.individuals who have a problem but there are cultural issues there. It
:58:13. > :58:19.is a patriarchal society. There are really, really good people in this
:58:19. > :58:24.community, but where are the issues around equality? Some of the values
:58:24. > :58:28.that go on, the way girls are treated and families, the way the
:58:29. > :58:33.workload is spread out, where the opportunities for boys and girls are
:58:33. > :58:36.different, and know that is not universal, but there are some fixed
:58:36. > :58:43.cultural things about the way girls and women are treated which I'd
:58:43. > :58:47.think lays the trail, the education for young boys who think they can
:58:47. > :58:54.treat girls in a different way when they get that opportunity. Do you
:58:54. > :59:02.agree with that Yvonne, ? entirely. The way men are few women
:59:02. > :59:09.in this country entirely leaves a lot to be desired. The equal pay act
:59:09. > :59:13.has never been enforced and there are is still disparity. The attitude
:59:13. > :59:18.goes right into the heart of Westminster. Sarah Champion, a
:59:18. > :59:22.female MP, she is in the minority. Sarah Champion, are you satisfied
:59:22. > :59:28.that never again will political correct as a and investigation into
:59:28. > :59:31.grinning as it has done in the past? Eye am not satisfied at all. This is
:59:32. > :59:35.something that political parties think it is fine to kick around. It
:59:35. > :59:45.is not. It is about protecting children and politics should not
:59:45. > :59:46.
:59:46. > :59:52.come into it, nor should political correctness. Kris Hopkins?Eye think
:59:52. > :59:56.it will still play out. I'm confident eye have a good police
:59:56. > :00:00.commander who is going in perceived of these criminals. For the fact
:00:00. > :00:05.that the young girl early Ron did not have confidence to speak out,
:00:05. > :00:11.the fact that many parents are still frustrated and there is lots of
:00:11. > :00:15.hidden criminality going on, there is a long way to go on this journey