SKOTLANDIA : Pemerkosaan Anak2 di Mesjid
GOD BLESS AMERICA
http://www.indonesia.faithfreedom.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16548
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Penyelidikan terhadap organisasi zakat untuk membongkar rahasia
tabu masyarakat kulit hitam dan etnis minoritas.
By Neil Mackay
ALI KHAN sedang duduk dalam sebuah pertemuan di mesjid Glasgow,
dan membicarakan tentang kejadian pedofilia di mesjid. Dia sadar bahwa dia
harus menangani masalah ini seorang diri. Seorang Ustad dituduh melakukan
pemerkosaan terhadap muridnya anak perempuan yang masih di bawah umur. Khan
berusia 47 tahun dan pengusaha berada. Dia duduk bersama sejumlah tokoh2
senior Mulsim di masyarakat untuk membicarakan apa yang harus dan tidak
dilakukan terhadap si Ustad.
"Ini horror yang sangat mengerikan," kata Khan lewat telephon di
kantornya di Dubai, "yang disampaikan adalah Ustad tersebut harus
diperbolehkan untuk tetap berada di Mesjid."
Si Ustad pedofil menyelamatkan muka mesjid dengan menyembunyikan
diri sendiri. "Siapa yang tahu di mana dia berada sekarang?" tanya Khan yang
masih tertekan karena kejadian itu. "Polisi tidak pernah terlibat. Ini semua
dirahasiakan."
Proof of this "hushing up" of the alleged abuse of children from
ethnic backgrounds was what prompted Khan to set up Roshni, a new charity
based in Glasgow. The word Roshni means light in Urdu, and the charity has
as its motto the phrase No More Secrets.
From tomorrow, Roshni will campaign for the UK's black and
ethnic minorities to confront crimes against children which are being swept
under the carpet by shame, fear and silence.
Khan believes many people from Britain's ethnic communities
wrongly see organisations such as the police, the health service and social
work as "white" and therefore fail to report offences against children.
Likewise, charities like Children First and Kidscape are seen, once again
wrongly, as existing for white children.
To compound Khan's belief that ethnic communities needed a
wake-up call on child protection issues, a child abuse scandal broke at
Glasgow's central mosque. Taher Din was jailed for a year after sexually
molesting two young boys at the iconic building near the Clyde.
Din, a member of the mosque's management committee, had a
previous conviction for indecent assault. The boys he assaulted were just
nine and 10. The first sex attack took place during Ramadan, while leading
members of the city's Asian community worshipped nearby.
During the trial, there were suggestions that officials from the
mosque may have tried to cover up the attacks. The first victim told
prosecutors that when Din dragged him into a toilet, another mosque official
walked in. Din left the scene and the boy told his father what had happened.
The father could not bring himself to believe the allegation.
The police were not informed, and eight months later a
worshipper at the mosque caught Din abusing a second child. Din had lured
the boy to a changing room under the pretence that they were going to play
football.
A doctor, Mohammed Farooq, heard the boy shouting out and went
to investigate. He reported the incident to a member of staff at the mosque,
who told him not to phone the police. Farooq was told: "We know the guy, we
will sort it out." The child's mother, however, alerted the authorities
herself.
Tomorrow, Roshni will kick off its first big campaign, calling
on every mosque, madrasah and ethnic youth group in Scotland to make sure
all their staff are fully cleared by Disclosure Scotland against the sex
offenders register and given state approval to work with children. Failure
to "disclosure" staff is a breach of the Protection of Children Act. Many
smaller organisations don't even know what Disclosure Scotland is, Khan
claims.
"I have done quite well in life and I want to give something
back," says Khan. "My first goal is simply to raise awareness among adults
in the black and ethnic minority community about child abuse, and I also
want children to learn what is appropriate - what is right and wrong
behaviour for an adult."
Roshni is also going to try to change cultural attitudes that
make dealing with abuse difficult for ethnic minority families. The issues
of shame and honour, says Khan, mean "children and adults find it very hard
to report offences outside the community - that is borne out by the example
of the mosque trying to hush up what happened".
"We come from countries with a very strong family-based
culture," Khan went on, "that makes it hard for some people to report.
Denouncing one family member is like denouncing the whole family. We need to
change this mindset. My personal view is that I think some people believe
they will be bringing shame on others if they speak out."
He spoke of people being "spurned and threatened" for daring to
speak out about crimes against children.
"Our own research," Khan said, "has shown a tendency not to
report abuse within religious establishments, particularly where this
involves religious leaders, as a result of the shame that this can bring
upon a community."
The Disclosure Initiative is the first of many steps towards
ensuring all Scotland's children are equally protected. Khan describes the
work as a "critical partnership" with faith leaders and "a historic turning
point in child protection within Scotland's faith communities".
"From Monday, we will be approaching all places of worship,
schools of worship, religious organisations and private houses where
teaching takes place and ensuring that anyone working with children has been
cleared by Disclosure Scotland," Khan said.
"We will visit every mosque and temple in Scotland to make sure
that they adapt to 21st-century standards of child protection. We feel many
religious organisations are unaware of their responsibilities under statute.
We think a lot of smaller organisations have never heard of Disclosure
Scotland. We have to knock on every door and tell them about Disclosure
Scotland. At the moment, there is not enough oversight and protection."
He added: "Scotland's faith communities are united in their
absolute opposition to child abuse. However, there remains a general sense
of inertia when it comes to translating this opposition into practical
measures that will reduce the risk to children."
Roshni will pay for any disclosures that haven't been done.
Leaders of all ethnic faiths will be contacted, but Roshni will begin with
Scotland's "big three" - Muslim, Sikh and Hindu. It's a big job: in Glasgow
alone there are 18 mosques and 15 Muslim organisations for young people.
Nor will the work be easy. Khan says it is not uncommon for
people to take local children into their homes for Koranic teaching. While
they may merely be teaching children, they will be reluctant to be
disclosured as many are being paid unofficially and want to avoid the
taxman.
Once the Disclosure Initiative is under way, Roshni will start
to campaign to prevent adults who have been found guilty of abusing children
while in a position of trust simply moving to another part of Britain and
starting to work with young people again. "It's happened in the past. People
are slipping through loopholes even if we wanted to stop them moving
around," said Khan, pointing out that similar problems faced Christian
churches for many years.
Roshni is not focusing only on sexual abuse, however. "If a
child wakes up every morning and gets a smack around the head, it will think
that's the norm," Khan added. "In the long run, we need to ensure that all
ethnic minority children feel comfortable reporting outside the community.
In five years, I want to see all ethnic minority children empowered."
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