Asian sex abusers to be stripped of UK citizenship. White ones to be knighted

The Independent revealed today that British Home Secretary Teresa May will be extending terrorism legislation to tackle “Asian sex abuse gangs”. The news comes a day after the Savile report, which looked into a culture of self-serving denial at the BBC allowing powerful white figures to abuse the young and vulnerable. Such irony should not be lost on anyone.

If sex abuse is specific to any one group of people, it’s men, of all colours and religions. Sex abuse is a worldwide problem rooted firmly in a global power structure that privileges men over women. it is not exclusive to Rochdale or Rotherham, refugees or mosques, but can be found all over Britain from suburban homes to "respectable" institutions. To view it as ethnically or religiously particular is not only racially and politically self-serving but highly dangerous; as it prioritises one set of predators, it renders another invisible.

A recent study revealed that "a fifth of British women experienced sexual assault at school." Another study showed that endemic child abuse in Britain was "much more widespread than first thought". Most child abuse happens within the family. Grooming gangs, as evil and abhorrent as they are, are the minority. British-Pakistani Muslim grooming gangs even more so. Disproportionately focusing on ethnic grooming peddles a myth that Asians, more specifically Muslim Asians, are inherently predatory.

Recent revelations reveal many British seventies television icons had at some point in their career, in between telling poorly written racist jokes, sexually abused at least one man, woman or child.

Jimmy Savile, Britain’s most prolific sex abuser and paedophile, was also her most celebrated son, hosting programmes dedicated to children, rich pickings for the monster. Friend of politician and royalty, Savile was given keys to a mental hospital and knighted for services to charity. A knighthood which, in his own words, got him “off the hook”. Allegations of abuse at the BBC were widely known but were rarely talked about. At least five senior BBC employees knew about sexual predators but failed to act. Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten accused the BBC of banning him for speaking out against Savile four decades ago.

Savile’s friend Rolf Harris, a man once equally beloved in the UK, for his phallic digeridoo, colourful paintings, rubbish songs and care for animals is not of Pakistani descent. Will he be stripped of his citizenship and deported back to the land of racism and Vegemite?

And whilst such legislation will target dual-nationals which include Rolf Harris, it can be safe to assume that it was drawn up in response to what happened in Rotherham and Rochdale and not what happened at the BBC.

This extreme example of white privilege extends all the way to the British Parliament itself, where MPs like Cyril Smith (also knighted) were afforded protection from prosecution, using positions of power to systematically abuse some of society’s most vulnerable children.

Theresa May herself personally appointed two people with close connections to the suspects to head an inquiry into VIP paedophiles, much to the horror of victims, who have waited for decades to see their abusers brought to justice.

How many more MPs, senior officials or civil servants, sitting or retired, who visited the notorious Elms Guest House or Dolphin Square flats will die before their victims see any justice? If any justice ever comes, that is. And how many files will stay "lost" or misplaced?

Sex abuse is a serious crime and the government should do everything within its power to counter it. But a key tenet of law is that it is applied universally. If one set of sex abusers, Asian in this instance, are deported, while white Australian abusers are allowed to stay, then something is seriously flawed in our application of the law.

This narrative of singling out black and brown men as hyper-sexualised beasts is not new; one look at Nazi and colonial propaganda will illuminate. Today, such racism is part of a fabric constructed to provide cover for unending foreign imperial adventures. Islamophobia, at root, helps transform dead children into collateral damage for profit.

It also helps to tighten border controls and crudely gain votes. The biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War gives European governments, especially selfish conservative ones hell-bent on austerity, a headache. Their role is to trickle wealth upwards not downwards. The migrant as deviant provides a useful scapegoat, a demonised "other," to misdirect anger over the effects of policies that foster inequality. Whilst we fight each other for the few drops at the bottom of a barrel, they sit on top of it drinking champagne.

It’s easy to dismiss the sympathy for fleeing refugees (otherwise known as humans) that Europeans showed after the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi washed up on the Turkish coast, if you deem them all rapists. That’s why Germany can go, via Cologne, from welcoming immigrants with open arms to making child refugees cry as they step off the bus.

In a world of male dominance and sexism, abuse, often silent, is found in all corners of the globe and is woven into our social and economic hierarchy. White Britain, you are not immune. If we are serious about tackling cultures of abuse we must be serious about not singling out certain cultures. 

I can only assume that Theresa May is playing to the gallery. Years of uninterrupted xenophobic media conditioning means anti-immigrant sentiment is rife in the UK, therefore tough words and unfair legislation resonate with large swaths of the electorate. May, with personal ambition of leadership, and the Conservative Party looking to further strengthen its position with the electorate, could benefit from being seen to be acting hard after the Rotherham scandal.

David Cameron singled out Muslim women for not speaking English. Prevent, the British government's anti-radicalisation strategy, singles out Muslim students as potential extremists. Across the pond a potential future president calls for all Muslims to be banned.

As the hostility towards Muslims intensifies, innocent people will be attacked and killed, new laws will be made and even more extreme politicians will come to the fore.

If you want to strip sex abusers of citizenship then you should make sure the likes of Rolf Harris are equally part of your plan. Going to war with sex abuse means looking in the mirror, not just playing the blame game. You could start by not giving white predators knighthoods, teenage television shows or keys to hospitals. Stop promoting those who covered up or looked the other way, and certainly don’t hire friends of the accused to head up inquiries into them.

- Charles B. Anthony is a writer, filmmaker, columnist, producer/host of Middle East Eye's Blink News and researcher for Will Self.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Photo: Australian artist Rolf Harris shows off his Union Flag shirt on stage during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace in London on 4 June, 2012 (AFP).