As I have said before and you have failed to provide statistics covering the other muslim populations of the UK, Albanians, Arabs, Africans etc, the issue is NOT islam, the issue is Pakistani/Indian cultural attitudes towards women. Those two nations are horrific in their attitudes and treatment towards women and the way they have created the cultural concept of second-class women that can be treated however men wish. This attitude has been imported into the UK and needs to be dealt with.
This is the argument I'm making, pandering to the far right and trying to turn this into "if you are muslim you are a rapist" leads to the fanatical insanity of the likes of Dr legend who seems to truly believe that being muslim makes you "evil".
I'd like to see the debate focus on where it needs to be communities of Pakistani origin, regardless of religion. THIS is the bloody issue and by trning it into some stupid far right- far left cold war just means the whole mess becomes too political to deal with properly and does no justice to the victims.
This is where the real issue is, these demagogues don't give a about the victims, they are just political currency in the anti-muslim crusade. I kbow these areas of the north well because I grew up there, I was born at the QE, I cheered big fat Joe's barmy army at Boundary park, I remember how the cobbled streets felt under foot and I was chased a few times through the market for nicking fruit. I live in Oxfordshire now but my heart was left somewhere between Tommyfield and St Mary's.
Thing is I also saw the shadier parts growing up, I saw these kids on the streets and I know how forgotten they are and for how long. My Grandfather saw them as a blight, it was the accepted view and still is. A lower class of troublesome and worthless boys and girls, whores, drunks, druggies and criminals.
The pakistani gangs exploited them, yes but they where not the only ones and not the first to do so. For decades the have been the ignored underbelly of the north, police write them off, social services ignore them and the criminal elements use and abuse them.
Suddenly, when islam is on the political agenda we now care about these poor kids? Please, spare me.
I am FROM Oldham, my family have been a part of the Town's community for centuries, they even named a bloody street after my family (Scoltock Way). I understand the issues and the undercurrents of fear and distrust on both sides. Yes the Pakistanis formed their own communities, but what people don't mention is WHY they formed these communities.
They don't tell you about the racism of the 50's and 60's, where these communities where unable to mix, homes being burned down, pakistani and black people beaten by gangs if they where found in "white" communities. They don't mention the hindhu-muslim riots and violence that further isolated these communities when Pakitsan and India partitioned.
Generations of pakistani kids being told by their parents how their grandmothers where beaten in the street and their sari's ripped off. Generations of white kids being told by their parents how their grandparents had their "jobs stolen by ".
My Grandfather was a well respected and fair magistrate, my father an alcoholic racist who blamed everything on the blacks and . I've seen both sides of this argument. The rape gangs and exploitation of the north's abandoned and dispossessed is not about race or religion unless it suits an agenda. These wounds and issues run deep and it's a ing joke to see it suddenly come to the fore, see people suddenly care.