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Child abuse in mosques: Lifting the veil of secrecy

Ali Khan was sitting at a meeting in a Glasgow mosque, discussing a paedophile assault in a house of God, when he realised he had to take matters into his own hands. A Koranic teacher had been accused of sexually assaulting a young girl under his charge, and Khan, a 47-year-old property tycoon, was sitting alongside a handful of other senior Muslim figures in the community discussing what should or should not be done with the man.

"Horror of horrors," says Khan over the telephone from his office in Dubai, "what was suggested was that the alleged abuser should be allowed to remain in the mosque."

The alleged paedophile saved the mosque from compromising itself by disappearing. "How do we know where he is now?" asks Khan, still distressed about the event. "The police were never involved. It was another one of those hushed-up things."

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.

Full story at the Sunday Herald.