Unequal Reckonings: Clerical Abuse, Grooming Gangs, and the Politics of Religious Accountability
This article arises from a specific and immediate controversy. Following a televised discussion on GB News in which Emma Webb referenced survivor testimony suggesting that some grooming gang perpetrators invoked religious language during abuse, a wave of public condemnation followed. Clips were circulated online. Accusations of “Islamophobic hate speech” were made. Complaints to Ofcom were encouraged. Some critics suggested that the discussion itself endangered British Muslims.
The exchange did not involve any claim that Islam doctrinally endorses abuse. Rather, it concerned whether survivor testimony describing religiously framed justifications may be examined publicly without being categorised as anti-Muslim hostility.
This dispute coincides with renewed parliamentary and media debate over grooming gang inquiries, including advocacy for further investigation, and with ongoing government consideration of adopting an official definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” — building on earlier working definitions of Islamophobia.¹ Critics argue that a broad statutory or quasi-statutory definition could chill legitimate debate about religion in matters of public concern. Supporters argue that stronger protections are necessary to combat discrimination.
The issue, therefore, is not abstract. It concerns whether discussing alleged religious subculture in grooming gang cases may attract regulatory sanction — and whether Britain risks reintroducing blasphemy constraints by administrative means.
Islamic Doctrine and Criminal Violation
Islamic teaching unequivocally forbids sexual abuse. The Qur’an prohibits illicit sexual relations and unjust harm.² Classical jurisprudence across the Sunni legal schools treats rape (zina bi’l-ikrah) as a grave crime.³ Mainstream British Muslim bodies — including the Muslim Council of Britain — have repeatedly condemned grooming gang offences as un-Islamic and criminal.⁴
There is no recognised orthodox Islamic authority that sanctions sexual exploitation.
Yet doctrinal prohibition does not exhaust legitimate inquiry. In clerical abuse investigations within the Catholic Church, no one argued that because Catholicism condemns abuse, theological culture could not be examined. Investigators scrutinised clerical authority, sacramental power, hierarchical secrecy, and institutional governance.⁵ The same occurred within the Church of England, where safeguarding failures prompted structural reform and national oversight.⁶
Doctrine condemned the crimes; culture and structure were still analysed.
The Church Under Total Scrutiny
Following global scandals, the Catholic Church faced Royal Commissions, parliamentary inquiries, independent audits, financial settlements, and binding safeguarding frameworks.⁷ Clericalism became a subject of theological and sociological critique. Episcopal resignations followed public findings. Institutional authority was not shielded from examination.
No credible authority suggested that analysing ecclesial culture constituted anti-Christian hate speech.
The Church’s hierarchical, juridical structure made such reckoning possible and enforceable.
Fragmented Authority in British Islam
Grooming gangs, by contrast, were prosecuted as criminal conspiracies rather than as organs of mosque governance.⁸ Islam in Britain operates without a centralised hierarchy. The Muslim Council of Britain is an umbrella body without binding authority over the nation’s mosques. The Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board provides advisory guidance but no enforceable disciplinary regime.⁹
This structural difference matters. The Catholic Church could be held institutionally accountable because it is a corporate religious body. British Islam is decentralised and communally organised.
Yet structural difference does not justify discursive immunity.
The Religious Subculture Question
Some survivors in grooming gang cases have alleged that perpetrators invoked religious language, used purity concepts, or framed victims as religious outsiders. Ella Hill, writing in The Independent, described religious indoctrination as part of her experience of abuse.¹⁰ Baroness Cox raised cases in Parliament in which victims reported coercion framed in religious terms.¹¹
Whether such claims are widespread or marginal is an empirical question. But raising the question has often been labelled Islamophobic.
In clerical abuse discourse, three layers were examined:
- Official doctrine
- Institutional culture
- Misuse of religious authority
In grooming gang debates, even asking whether distorted religious subculture played a role is sometimes treated as collective vilification.
Analytically, it is possible to distinguish between Islam as a theological system and criminals who may instrumentalise its language. That distinction was successfully maintained in Christian cases.
The Emerging Free Speech Dimension
The debate now extends beyond safeguarding into constitutional territory. The proposed adoption of an official definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” — building on earlier Islamophobia working definitions — raises concerns about speech regulation.¹²
If broadly drafted, such a definition could:
– Chill discussion of religious elements in criminal cases.
– Conflate criticism of religious practice with hostility toward believers.
– Discourage examination of practices such as halal slaughter or veiling.
The example of Masih Alinejad is instructive. Alinejad, a critic of compulsory hijab laws in Iran, was branded an Islamophobe by journalist Mehdi Hasan after criticising public celebration of the hijab as a symbol of empowerment.¹³ Her critique targeted state-enforced religious dress codes — not Muslim individuals.
Britain abolished its common-law blasphemy offences through the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.¹⁴ A policy framework that penalises criticism of religious doctrine or practice risks reintroducing blasphemy constraints in functional form.
Equal Protection, Equal Scrutiny
A free society must uphold two principles simultaneously:
– Muslims must be protected from discrimination, harassment, and violence.
– Religious ideas, institutions, and cultural manifestations must remain open to legitimate scrutiny.
To shield any religion from examination in matters of public concern creates unequal standards.
Crime is committed by individuals. Doctrine may forbid it. Yet perpetrators may misuse religious concepts, and subcultures may distort moral teaching. Investigating those dynamics is not bigotry; it is analytical consistency.
If clericalism could be examined without anti-Christian hysteria, then religious subculture in other contexts must also be open to examination — without collapsing into collective blame.
A mature democracy must be capable of protecting minorities while preserving free inquiry. If Britain cannot sustain that balance, it risks replacing reasoned analysis with accusation — and justice with asymmetry.
¹ All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, Islamophobia Defined, 2018.
² Qur’an 17:32; 4:29.
³ Rudolph Peters, Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 56–67.
⁴ Muslim Council of Britain, public statements condemning child sexual exploitation, 2018–2023.
⁵ Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Australia), Final Report, 2017.
⁶ Church of England, National Safeguarding Team reforms, General Synod Papers GS Misc 1172 (2019).
⁷ Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Catholic Church Investigation Report, 2020.
⁸ Alexis Jay OBE, Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham 1997–2013, 2014.
⁹ Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), Constitution and Advisory Framework.
¹⁰ Ella Hill, “I was groomed — religion played a role,” The Independent, 2018.
¹¹ Baroness Cox, House of Lords debates on sharia councils and forced marriage, Hansard, 2019.
¹² APPG on British Muslims, 2018; subsequent government consultation discussions, 2023–2026.
¹³ Public exchange between Masih Alinejad and Mehdi Hasan regarding World Hijab Day commentary, 2024 (social media archive).
¹⁴ Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, s.79.
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