ROTHERHAM: Members of Britain’s Pakistani community reacted with outrage on Wednesday amid reports that officials failed to act on sex abuse cases because of concerns about racism in the northern English town of Rotherham.

Muhbeen Hussain, foun­der of the Rotherham Muslim Youth Group, told the Daily Mirror that Muslims were disgusted that justice was not done, leading to some 1,400 children being sexually exploited over a 16-year period, mostly by Pakistani men.

“Race, religion or political correctness should never provide a cloak of invisibility to such grotesque crimes.”

Report author Alexis Jay cited appalling acts of violence between 1997 and 2013 in the town of some 250,000.

Charities dealing with abused children have expressed shock not just at the number of victims but also by the reluctance of the authorities to address the question that people of Pakistani heritage were involved in most of the cases over fears they would be labelled racists.

Barnardo’s, a charity that works with vulnerable children, unilaterally condemned the abuse which left so many to suffer for so long. “No one should ever be frightened to act decisively because of fear of being seen as racist or politically incorrect,” said Barnardo’s chief executive, Javed Khan.

Britain’s Labour Party called for the resignation of the police commissioner in the town after the report found that “collective failures” led to inaction.

But Ms Jay said Rotherham is not the only place in Britain struggling with this issue. She told the BBC that “demand for this kind of sexual activity with children is on the increase and that is validated across not just the UK but Europe and worldwide”.

“We can’t say that Rotherham is any better or worse than other places because the information simply doesn’t exist at a national level to tell us that,” she added.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2014