Christian Concern have published a report on whether there is a specific influence in grooming gang behaviour is specifically influenced by the religion of Islam.
The existence of this report is first of all another reminder that the Government has still failed to get its enquiry established and that is an important matter of justice for victims that Christians should care about.
However, the report still leaves me with many of the same questions I had prior to its publication. I thought it might be helpful to jot them down now.
- How do we go about getting a handle on the scale of the problem. Each and every case is one case too many. At the same time we are offered eye-watering estimates of the numbers involved such as thousands in Rotherham alone. What is not clear is how those estimates are arrived at. Do we have numbers in terms of victims coming forward, convictions and additional cases that offenders have asked to be taken into account?
- Where are we in terms of moving to a fuller understanding of the roots of sexual violence against women and girls generally and how do grooming gangs fit into that pattern. Is this something unique, especially, is it a religious phenomena or is it an aspect of male sexual violence more generally. It is worth observing that whilst South Asian origin Muslims are identified as primary perpetrators in relation to grooming gangs, this is not true of all other aspects of sexual violence with the situation being reversed for paedophile gangs.
- Why is it specifically south Asian Muslims implicated? Why are Muslims from other cultural contexts not in the figures?
There are a number of concerns about the report which is presented as an in depth academic offering. One of my concerns about how we engage with Islam is that we need to engage fairly, as we would expect to be engaged with. For example, is it right to single out Islam’s attitude to women and ignore the questions people would have about some Christian interpretations? I write as a complementarian, very aware of the way that teaching on marriage and church leadership has been extended beyond what the Bible says in some quarters.
Does Islam have a superiority complex? Don’t we as Christians see Christ as unique and the sole source of truth and authority? What about the way this has been picked up and developed by some into ethno-cultural nationalism. You can’t complain of Islamic superiority whilst complaining about cultural relativism.
Thirdly, the report argues that there isn’t a concept of “age of consent” within Islam which is true. However, nor do other religious texts provide an age of consent. This is something that has developed over time. Islamic countries today do have laws on age of consent that are generally comparable with Western countries.
Fourth, the report includes a number of recommendations. I would be hesitant to include such from theologians on mattered if jurisprudence, criminology and law as this feels rather like it is outside of their field. One recommendation is that police should be trained to interview suspects about their religious beliefs. This sounds rather like we are asking them to encroach into the territory of thought policing. I suspect Christian Concern would be the first to object to this being applied to professing Christians.
I want to suggest a different hypothesis than the one put forward in the report. I’m not convinced that it is a straight forward case of a linear relationship between Islam and sexual violence. Rather, what we perhaps have is a coming together of the following. First that there is a significance in terms of the perception of white English morality so that white girls are devalued and targeted. Secondly that we are talking specifically about second/third generation Muslim South Asian families. This first means that there is specific opportunity for criminality in terms of contact. Second, that we need to think about other factors like gang culture and drug culture especially as outworkings of dissaffection amongst 2nd/3rd generation immigrant communities. Third that we need to think about how sexual violence is considered to be to do with power. To what extent does this reflect attempts to assert a level of power and control? Fourth, don’t ignore the sexual gratification nature of sin. Here may well be a religious factor, the impact of legalistic religion and the way it gives space for heinous sin. We will see this too in terms of legalistic Christianity.
That sin found an opportunity raises the point that people don’t want to talk about. They are happy to talk about a culture that made men think that girls were easy targets for their vilest sins. However there was a culture that failed to protect young girls, that taught them that they were worthless. We need to be alert to how both secular culture and even some Christian traditions reinforce that.
It is important to remember that we are not seeking to excuse sin and crime but to understand different factors at work, specifically ones that show how all sin and all cultures are idolatrous. We just find different ways to be sinful.
Faithroots 