The Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the United Kingdom has been facing significant backlash over its handling of the Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs also called rape gangs. PM Starmer not only rejected the demands of a national inquiry into the historical child sexual exploitation but also deemed demands for a national inquiry into Pakistani rape gangs a “far-right” position. Amidst backlash over dismissing a burning demand for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, the Labour Party’s adoption of a definition of Islamophobia which essentially implied that criticising Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs/rape gangs is ‘racist’ against Muslims, has sparked criticism.
The outrage stems from the Labour Party’s adoption of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims (APPG) definition of Islamophobia in 2019. The APPG’s definition of Islamophobia suggesting that talking about grooming gangs is racist and exposes Muslims to the possibility of ‘hate crimes’ hints at why the Labour government is reluctant to address the issue of grooming gangs. No wonder the Labour Party’s political correctness has suppressed discussions, criticism and actions against such Islamist crimes.
The definition of Islamophobia adopted by the Labour Party and its decision to go berserk against those criticising Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs and demanding an inquiry into their crimes, instead of acting against the Jihadi paedophiles suggests that Labour’s position has inhibited open discussion about grooming gangs due to fears of being labelled Islamophobic. OpIndia has reported how for years, the Labour Party played Muslim appeasement politics over the rape gangs issue and the police did not act against rape Jihadis out of the fear of appearing ‘racially insensitive’ or ‘Islamophobic’ so much so that in many cases, the police ended up arresting the victims and their families instead of the Jihadi perpetrators.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims’s definition of Islamophobia
Back in 2018, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims proposed that there should be a ‘legally binding’ definition of Islamophobia. While there already are laws covering religion-based hate crimes and discrimination, the definition sought to expand the scope of what was deemed criminal under the existing legal framework, particularly in the context of criticism directed towards Muslims.
“Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness,” the definition proposed by the APPG on British Muslims co-chaired by Anna Soubry and Wes Streeting reads.
In their Foreword to the APPG report, Wes Streeting and Anna Soubry advocated for the definition of Islamophobia to be adopted by the government, statutory agencies, and civil society organisations. This would allow them to challenge Islamophobia through various channels such as politics, policymaking, media, society, and education.
The APPG contended that the revised definition would prevent unfavourable sentiments that would not be considered crimes by police. It is “required in order to bring about a transformation in social etiquette.” The APPG on British Muslims also said that the new definition of Islamophobia should set “appropriate limits to free speech” when talking about Muslims, and create “tests… for ascertaining whether contentious speech is indeed reasonable criticism or Islamophobia masquerading as ‘legitimate criticism.’”
The APPG, however, failed to elaborate on who exactly will decide if the criticism is “reasonable” or ‘Islamophobic’. The APPG asserted that criticising Islam amounts to anti-Muslim racism. It said that terms like ‘Asian grooming gangs’ or ‘Bin Laden’, (notice the inverted commas used by the APPG) are a modern-day iteration of “anti-Islam tropes”
“From the numerous victim forms we were able to collect, we found a number of themes which served to reinforce the evidence presented to us by academic experts and community activists. We found that the racialisation of Muslims has palpable consequences with both Asian, Black and white convert Muslims being targeted for abuse on grounds of their Muslimness. We also found that age-old stereotypes and tropes about Islam, such sexual profligacy and paedophilia or Islam and violence, and their modern-day iteration in the ‘Asian grooming gangs’ or ‘Bin Laden’ labels re-emerge in discourses and dispositions which heighten vulnerability of Muslims to hate crimes,” the propaganda report by APPG on British Muslims read.
Moreover, the APPG on British Muslims also listed certain “contemporary examples of Islamophobia”. In its desperation to muzzle any voice of criticism against Muslims or Islam, the APPG deemed even accusing Muslims of exaggerating or inventing Islamophobia, genocide of Muslims, as an example of Islamophobia. This simply means that even Muslims play false victimhood which they do in most cases if not all, exaggerating isolated incidents of criticism or violence against a Muslim person or group as a targeted attack on the entire community, you cannot call them out because if you do, you will be declared ‘Islamophobic’.
These examples included: “Accusing Muslims as a group of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Muslim person or group of Muslim individuals, or even for acts committed by non-Muslims. Accusing Muslims as a group, or Muslim majority states, of inventing or exaggerating Islamophobia, ethnic cleansing or genocide perpetrated against Muslims. Accusing Muslim citizens of being more loyal to the ‘Ummah’ (transnational Muslim community) or to their countries of origin, or to the alleged priorities of Muslims worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
The APPG on British Muslims also asserted that “denying Muslim populations the right to self -determination e.g., by claiming that the existence of an independent Palestine or Kashmir is a terrorist endeavour,” is also Islamophobic. Apparently, if the Labour government adopts this definition, Starmer would declare India and Israel as Islamophobic.
The UK’s parliamentary body perhaps wanted non-Muslims to basically genuflect before the Muslim community and accept any and every demand Muslims make and dare not criticise them.
“Applying double standards by requiring of Muslims behaviours that are not expected or demanded of any other groups in society, eg loyalty tests,” the APPG said in complete disregard of the fact that Islam hardly attaches any importance to concepts like nationalism or patriotism rather loyalty towards the Muslim Ummah transcending beyond countries or regions barriers, is deemed paramount.
The next example cited by the APPG outrightly whitewashes the Islamic Jihad to subjugate non-Muslims across the world. In a way, if one criticises Islamic terrorists attacking non-Muslims in the UK to spread Islamic dominance, it is Islamophobic.
Similarly, for nearly four decades Pakistani Muslim men with Afghani and Bangladeshi Muslims in many cases specifically targeted white Christian, Hindu, Sikh and other non-Muslim girls, groomed and raped them out of sheer hatred for kafirs as they see them as “fair game”, those criticising grooming gangs should not criticise Muslims even though the crux of the crime lies in the religiosity of the perpetrators and not essentially their race.
“Using the symbols and images associated with classic Islamophobia (e.g. Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule) to characterize Muslims as being ‘sex groomers’, inherently violent or incapable of living harmoniously in plural societies,” the report reads.
Conservative MP Kemi Badenoch joined by others has criticised the definition of Islamophobia created by APPG on British Muslims and the Labour Party’s adoption of the same. Since the Labour Party has adopted this flawed definition of Islamophobia, the Labour government has also attempted to formally adopt this definition. In August 2024, it was reported that the Labour government was considering adopting the APPG for British Muslims’s definition of Islamophobia. It was seen how the fears of appearing Islamophobic and racially insensitive prevented UK authorities from effectively acting against Pakistani Muslim groomers/rapists for years and now the Labour Party which has adopted the flawed Islamophobia definition is dismissing those criticising Muslim grooming gangs as “far-right” in an apparent attempt to make the Muslim community sacrosanct to criticism.
Later today Labour MPs for places like Telford, Rochdale, Bristol, Derby, Bradford and dozens more will vote against a national inquiry into the gangs that systematically raped children in their constituencies.
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) January 8, 2025
Why do they think obeying Keir Starmer’s whip is more important… pic.twitter.com/4Zh3D3CCyn
In the context of Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs, it was seen that in many cases, instead of arresting the rapists, the police ended up arresting the victims and their families. This was commonly due to a failure to probe the grooming part, in most cases a deliberate cover-up to avoid appearing Islamophobic, culturally insensitive and racially prejudiced, with young victims being treated as offenders for small violations while still in contact with their abusers.
While in many cases, the victims were blamed for the horrific crimes committed against them by Pakistani grooming gangs, the political discourse around the grooming gangs and their crimes in the UK indicates that the appeasing politicians feared racial profiling and the supposed spread of ‘Islamophobia’. It must be recalled how Sarah Champion, a Labour Party MP had to apologise for an article published in The Sun in 2017 wherein she wrote that “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”.
Notably, the issue of child sexual abuse at the hands of grooming gangs led by British Pakistani men has been a serious issue demanding attention for years. In the late 90s, young girls, a minimum of 11 were picked up, raped, beaten, sold, and even killed by grooming gangs or rape gangs for a full forty years. One of the exposures in a similar instance in Rotherham found that 1,400 children had been sexually abused over 16 years by British Pakistani men. A detailed report on this case can be read here.
She pointed out that the child sexual exploitations being reported in the UK involved “predominantly Pakistani men” adding that the apprehension of getting labelled ‘racist’ was hindering the investigation by the authorities. “These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage.”
Champion was not only made to apologise under the pressure of Muslim appeasing politicians like Jeremy Corbyn but also resign from her position as the shadow minister.
