Respect's Bradford council
leader Alyas Karmani has written a sermon which will be heard in mosques
throughout the country today which will condemn sexual grooming.
The sermon will highlight how the Koran emphasises
that Muslims must protect children and the vulnerable. As the BBC reports
it......
It was supported by leading Muslim organisations, a
spokesman said.
The Muslim Council of Britain, the Mosque and Imams
National Advisory Board and the Islamic Society of Britain had all pledged to
devote sermons to the issue of sexual grooming, said TAG, a not-for-profit
organisation set up to tackle sexual grooming in the UK.
The sermon, written by Alyas Karmani, an imam and
youth worker in Keighley, West Yorkshire (and Respect council leader in
Bradford) opens with a quotation from the Koran forbidding "sexual
indecency, wickedness and oppression of others".
These "disgraceful actions" must be
wholeheartedly condemned, it adds.
It finishes with a call for action and reminds
Muslims to speak out if they see any "evil action".
Mr Karmani said: "There's a profound
disrespect culture when it comes to treating women. One of the reasons we feel
this is the case is poor role models.
"Access to pornography, which also objectifies
women, is creating a culture where men are now ambiguous when it comes to the
issue of violence against women."
Mr Karmani said the sermon
was being circulated in an effort to counter what he claimed was a taboo in
mosques about talking about sex.
The sermon is the first phase of a
"hard-hitting" campaign following a number of high-profile child
grooming cases involving Asian men in Bradford, Oxford, Rochdale and Telford.
While sexual grooming and child abuse affected all
sections of society and was perpetrated by people of all ethnic groups, the
Koran exhorted Muslims to act against evil and injustice and create just
societies.
On Thursday, seven men who abused girls as part of
a sadistic sex grooming ring based in Oxford were jailed for life at the Old
Bailey.
Two of the men were of east African origin and five
of Pakistani origin.
Former Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer said she
was "delighted" by the move, which she said showed the issue was
being taken more seriously than in the past.
Ms Cryer said she was approached by mothers worried
about grooming in 2002, and was frustrated when police, social services and
mosque elders took no action.
"I just hope this message gets beyond the
mosque to the non-attenders, because by and large the people who behave like
this don't go to the mosque," she said.