they should have listened to Khalid Mahmoud

Birmingham's authorities should have listened to Khalid Mahmood, when the Labour Birmingham MP complained in 2009 that there were over 40 madrassas where children learnt the rudiments of the Muslim faith from teachers who are not subject either to official oversight or to CRB checks.

Now 18-year-old Birmingham madrassa alumnus, Adil Rashid, has been found guilty of having groomed and raped a 13-year-old girl he met on Facebook, AND escaped prison.

His defence lawyer, Laban Leake of Furnival Chambers, lists as his specialist practice areas "Serious Crime, Regulation/Compliance, Prison Law, Health & Safety, Courts Martial, Inquests & Public Inquiries"; was he out of his depth defending a paedophile? It certainly seems strange to allege that Rashid had "a degree of sexual naivety" because of his madrassa training when he knew enough to wear a condom when having sex with the 13-year-old girl.

Judge Michael Stokes says it was unusual for Rashid to have been taught that a woman resembles "a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground". Islamists would recognise the analogy: you buy a lollipop for pennies for short-term pleasure, but if it’s fallen on the ground it’s worthless and needs to be binned.

However, the complexity of the situation is shown by the fact that madrassas’ chief critic, Mahmood, is himself a Muslim and comes under fire frequently from the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPACUK) for his integrationist stance. As British Freedom says: it’s about culture.

And culture is what perhaps led Stokes to intimate that the adult had been "seduced" by the 13-year-old child, who was "quite happy to engage in sexual activity". We must target Muslim paedophiles; but would the judge have dreamt of making such comments, or treating Adil with kid gloves, had his victim come from the leafy avenues of suburbia?

Gerry Dorrian
300 words

Resources

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/fears-raised-over-40-madrassas-104971 - Birmingham Mail

Muslim abuser who 'didn't know' that sex with a girl of 13 was illegal is spared jail - Daily Mail

Reform call as madrassa teacher guilty of child cruelty - bbc.co.uk

Scroll down to the 7th paragraph from the bottom of this Daily Mail article for a comparison of men to gold and women to silk, and you'll get an idea why the rapist was told that women are "like lollipops"