Once again, you select the stats that suit your argument, whereas I am suggesting that the issue at its core is about the failure of men to build relationships with women, and the dynamcs of power within gang cultures -if you step back from your obsession with grooming to relocate these dynamics within the perspective of gang culture, you would appreciate how it is
relations between men that drive their behaviour and that 'being a man' is part of that discourse. This dynamic works for gangs of Asian men who groom young women as it does for urban gangs -black, white, Latino, mixed black and white and so on- within which behaviour is driven by a dynamic set by the controlling member(s) of the gang, and in which the availability of women -often girls aged below 16- is not only taken for granted, but where her 'rite of passage' into the gang may often be through gang rape in which the men/boys are
obliged to rape the girl in order to prove that they have what it takes to be part of the gang. Cultures of belonging, symbolised by tattoos are just one part of this. It can be hard, if not impossible to break up the gang from the outside, even girls who suffer what you and I call abuse cannot see a way out of the gang/family to which they belong, and this makes it much harder for the police to prosecute even when they know what is going on.
Numerically, I would expect their to be more 'regular gangs' than gangs of Asian men grooming young women, but you need to ask why it is that in 2013 so many men show such disrespect to women -and for that matter, as it started this whole thread -why some men go berserk if they see another man in a frock, particularly if we are talking about someone who chooses to walk around in drag or is transexual, rather than a group of lads in frocks on a pub crawl. Why are such men so insecure in themselves that they feel their only 'natural' response is a violent one?
Just today there has been a report of the verbal abuse of women at the Glasgow University Union where a UK wide debating competition of many years pedigree was held, and at which students from Glasgow University heckled the women speaking (one from Cambridge, the other from Edinburgh) for no apparent reason except that they were women -Glasgow University Union (like the Unions in Cambridge and Oxford these are private clubs) didn't even admit women members until 1980 and after the debate women continued to receive verbal abuse from GU students.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education...-heckling.html
Look at the continuum and follow it through from verbal disrespect for women to gang rape, it is not only pervasive in modern society, it happens without being driven by Islam, or Christianity, or Judaism.
On the specifics of 'Fun boys' the point is that what you condemn in the UK has to be tolerated in Afghanistan because the perpetrators of the crimes are the people
we are training and supporting; -the rights of those young boys not to be abused may be universal human rights, but you are not going to have a government that is right now trying to trash human rights legislation in the UK deal with it in Helmand.
Have a look at
Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, by Frank Ledwidge (Yale University Press, 2011). Ledwidge served in an intelligence capacity in both Iraq and Afghanistan and discusses the mess the British got into when they arrived in Helmand province-
The problems of the reputation of the British, derived from their unfortunate history in the area, were compounded by the perception that they were supporting a chronically corrupt, totally incompetent and thoroughly discredited government. The police, who had replaced the warlords in preying on those who used the roads, were arguably the worst aspect of government. Most police posts had their 'fun boy' -child catamite- and the British estimated that over 80% of policemen were regular smokers of hash, with 67% using opium either additionally or instead. Rape by police officers on children was common. When I visited a very senior police officer in Lashkar Gar as part of my job, I asked, only half-seriously, whether it was true that the police were responsible for 90% of the crime in the province: "That is an appalling lie- a ridiculous idea. I think it is only about 85%" replied the Commander'. (p71).
Across the world, in different cultures, sexual behaviour that we consider shameful and damaging is taking place; I know you condemn it as I do; but it is not about being politically correct or reading
The Guardian or the
Daily Mail but thinking seriously about what it is that is going on here. I can't stop you from being obsessed with one aspect of the problem, you can at least admit it is not exclusive to young Muslim men -some, if not all are not exactly living what most Muslims or you and I would consider an 'Islamic' way of life; and ask some tougher questions about the relationship between power and sexuality.