Mark Durie on the UK Grooming Gangs

The truth must be told about what is happening in the UK:

Since bursting on the scene some 1400 years ago, Islam has shown what a dark and dangerous political religion it is. And when it advances within Western nations, it shows its true colours. One person who knows all about this is Rev Dr Mark Durie. He is one of Australia’s leading authorities on Islam and has written and taught extensively on the topic. I have reviewed some of his earlier books, including this one:

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/08/02/a-review-of-revelation-do-we-worship-the-same-god-by-mark-durie-cityharvest-publications-2006/

In a brand-new article Durie looks at how Islamic beliefs and doctrines are directly connected to the horrific grooming gangs in the UK. Those who know little about what has transpired there over the past few decades might look at my introductory piece on this: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/03/17/the-rape-of-a-culture-the-death-of-england/

Durie’s 34-page report is published by Christian Concern and deserves a wide reading. It can be found here: https://christianconcern.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/CC-Resource-Report-Grooming-Gangs-Mark-Durie-2511112.pdf

A press release on this important document says this in part:

Commentary on the grooming gangs has at times focused on ethnicity, while avoiding reference to religion as a potential driver of the abuse. The “Asian” ethnic label has been misleading as both too broad and too narrow, obscuring the actual pattern of abuse. In reality, the Islamic religion has a stronger correlation than ethnicity with grooming gang criminality: there is prima facie evidence that in the majority of cases the abusers have been Muslims.

 

Dr Mark Durie, is a Senior Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology. A theologian, author and Anglican pastor. He has published many articles and books on linguistics, Islam, Christian-Muslim relations, mission and religious freedom. His books on Islam include The Third Choice, Liberty to the Captives and The Qur’an and its Biblical Reflexes.

The press release also says this:

The report identifies eight aspects of Islamic law and theology that are proposed to influence and enable the grooming gangs’ criminality. It is emphasised that religious drivers can motivate behaviours which are strictly speaking prohibited by the religion’s teachings.

The eight factors are:

1. The doctrine of the superiority of Muslims over non-Muslims.

2. The doctrine of loyalty and disavowal, also known as ‘love and hate for the sake of God’.

3. The superiority and dominance of men over women.

4. The mandated seclusion of women by men.

5. The religious practice of forced marriage, and the lack of a concept of an age of consent.

6. The perceived threat of dangerous female sexuality.

7. The practice of sex slavery as an aspect of the laws of jihad.

8. Dhimmitude and the treatment of conquered non-Muslim peoples in Islamic law.

A discussion of his booklet, and a few quotes from it, will give you more of a feel for what is found therein, and hopefully encourage you to read the entire document. In his Introduction he notes how so far there has been too much silence on these horrific crimes, with so much of the media and the government trying to whitewash or cover up what has actually been taking place.

Says Durie, “There has been a pattern of empathy for abusers, but not for victims.” Above all, there as been an ongoing attempt by authorities to play down any Muslim connection to these horrible activities: “As we shall see, there is strong prima facie evidence that Islam has contributed to these crimes.”

He states his main theme: “I will argue that there are good reasons to believe that the religion of Islam has contributed to the UK grooming gang epidemic.” He begins by making some necessary disclaimers and clarifications and then proceeds to lay out the evidence.

He notes how most Westerners are woefully ignorant about what Islam teaches – and practices. So he lays this out in some detail, arguing that religion is the elephant in the room when it comes to these grooming gangs. And he notes how the media and others regularly obscure the truth here.

For example, the grooming gangs are often referred to as “Asian”. Says Durie: “This language obscures the fact that there are very large non-Muslim Asian communities in the UK – including Hindus, Christians and Sikhs – who, with rare exceptions, have not been connected to the grooming gang epidemic, except as victims.” Indeed, Pakastani Muslims have been among the main perpetrators of these vile crimes.

The utterly diabolical descriptions of what happened to mainly young white girls need to be told and retold. Here is just one such account:

I was beaten, strangled, suffocated, and my head held under water, tortured, kicked, and raped over 100 times. I was told that if you don’t scream when you’re raped, then you’re consenting to the rape, so you should be stoned to death. I was told that Muslim girls know this (because the Quran says that Aisha’s silence was her consent to the marriage to Mohammed). So Muslim girls know to scream, but white girls don’t, so that’s their fault then, because they’re not Muslim. When I did wear a headscarf to try to protect myself from being raped, I was told to get it off, and they raped me again.

And there are so many other related issues that must be addressed as well. For example: “Another type of sex crime linked to UK Muslim communities is marriage trafficking. The UK Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) reported on 801 cases they had handled during 2024 in which girls and women resident in the UK were forced to marry men.”

Durie also goes on to provide plenty of detail about the eight aspects of Islamic law and theology that are mentioned above. These points are all found and reinforced in core Islamic writings and teachings.

In some concluding remarks on the overwhelming Islamic influence on what has been taking place there, he reminds us that there is diversity within Islam, and not all Muslims are insisting on pure sharia and offering justifications for such crimes. However, he continues:

Despite this, it can hardly be considered controversial to point out that the religious teachings of Islam have profoundly shaped Muslim cultures. So it is entirely reasonable to explore whether and to what extent Islam’s teachings about relationships between men and women, and between Muslims and non-Muslims, do exert a real-world influence on how Muslim people think and act.

The report closes with 11 recommendations. Here is the bullet-point version of them:

-Fears of stoking Islamophobia should not be allowed to skuttle transparent investigation of the grooming gangs’ religious cultures.

-The religious identities of both perpetrators and victims should be rigorously recorded.

-Police should be trained to interview grooming gang suspects concerning their religious beliefs.

-Police should also be trained to investigate religious aspects of the testimony of victims.

-The state should enforce a legal prohibition of unregistered sharia marriages.

-The role of abusers’ family members in enabling abuses must be considered.

-Islamic religious leaders should be called upon to disavow the activities of grooming gangs as well as certain religious beliefs which have enabled grooming gang activities.

-Politicians should refrain from making dismissive but ignorant claims concerning what Islam does and doesn’t teach about human sexual relations.

-It must be publicly acknowledged that there are Muslims who reject key elements of the grooming gangs’ religious cultures.

-The UK Forced Marriage Unit should remove statements on its website that there is no religious basis to forced marriages in Islam.

-Awareness training should be provided to vulnerable white working-class communities who are being targeted by grooming gangs. (The Sikh community already has programs which could be used as a model.)

The final paragraph of his Conclusion is this: “For now, this crucial question remains open: Will the UK grooming gang crisis turn out to be a milestone along the path to the Islamisation of the UK, or will it be a wake-up call that turns UK society back to its cultural and spiritual roots?”

Well done to Mark Durie and Christian Concern for releasing this invaluable report. The truth of what is really going on must be told, and this document does a superlative job in doing just that. It needs to be circulated far and wide.

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