By Sophie Borland
Last Updated: 7:02am GMT 26/03/2008
A Muslim leader has accused the police of being “over cautious” when investigating Asian gangs suspected of prostituting young white girls for fear of stirring up race riots.
Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Ramadhan Foundation, said that some of the criminals were Asian gangs looking to supplement their income now the cost of drugs has fallen in recent few years.
Speaking as part of BBC’s Panorama programme to be screened tomorrow, he said: “I think the police are overcautious on dealing with this issue openly because they fear being branded racist and I think that is wrong.
“These are criminals they should be treated as criminals. They are not Asian criminals, they are not Muslim criminals, they are not white criminals. They are criminals and they should be treated as criminals.”
The investigation found that the crime has an ethnic pattern across Britain and is largely committed by Asian groups in northern England, Afro-Caribbeans in the West Midlands and white, Turkish and Kurdish people in other regions.
Mr Shafiq said "I am the only Muslim leader in the UK that speaks up against this sort of thing and I do it because these teenage girls are somebody's sisters and they are somebody's daughters. I have got two daughters and I wouldn't want that to happen to my daughters.
"If there is a drug dealer grooming a white teenager into prostitution then I don't want the police service or local authority not to be open about it."
The Government has revealed it will introduce new crime-fighting targets aimed at combatting the problem and will introduce a new warning video for use in schools.
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