It is nearly 30 years since I first read the science fiction novel "Night Lamp" by Jack Vance, and I always remember the dark humour of the opening scene. A pair of academic anthropologists are visiting a distant planet to study the Vongo gypsies, who are described as follows:
"Both men and women wore picturesque garments to which were sewed the teeth of dead enemies: the booty of intertribal vendettas. Water was considered an enervating, even despicable, fluid, to be shunned at all costs. No gypsy allowed himself or herself to be bathed, from infancy until death, for fear of rinsing away a magic personal unguent which, oozing from the skin, was the source of mana. A rank beer was the drink of choice.
"The tribes were hostile in accordance with intricate formulae involving murders, mutilations and the scarification of captured children to make them vile in the eyes of their parents.
"The gypsy tribes gathered four times a year at specified encampments. For an off-worlder to visit a Vongo encampment was, at any time, an unnerving experience, but the tribal camp meetings were even more intense. A favourite pastime of the young bucks was to kidnap and rape the girls of another tribe, which caused a great hubbub, but which seldom came to bloodshed, since such exploits were considered juvenile pranks, at which the girls had probably connived. A far more serious offense was the kidnap of a chief or shaman, and the washing of him and his clothes in warm soapy water, in order to deplete him of his sacred ooze. After the washing, the victim was shorn of his beard and a bouquet of white flowers was tied to his testicles, after which he was free to slink back to his own tribe: naked, beardless, washed and bereft of mana. The wash water was carefully distilled, finally to yield a quart of yellow unctuous foul-smelling stuff, which would be used in tribal magic."
This passage is a piece of Swiftian satire, sketching a grotesque society where morality is inverted: kidnap and rape are minimized as a peccadillo, easily excused by the tribal elders, whereas the imposition of personal cleanliness constitutes the gravest of crimes.
It never occurred to me that I would encounter such an inverted morality in real life. But now I have. And it exists in my old home town of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, one of the centres of Muslim child rape gangs.
A while back I had read a report about how one of the rape victims in Rochdale had been mortified to encounter her rapist, Qari Abdul Rauf, in a local supermarket, despite him having been scheduled for deportation years earlier. I looked the name up and found an article by Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph, which stated:
"Rauf, a former taxi driver and religious preacher, was ordered to be deported by a judge nearly nine years ago after being convicted in 2012 of sexual offences against children. This included rape and trafficking. Rauf was jailed for six years after being found guilty of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16 years and trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. He was released in November 2014 – after just two-and-a-half years in prison.
"While his British citizenship has been revoked, the convicted child sex offender has claimed that he has renounced his Pakistani citizenship – arguing that he is rendered ‘stateless’. It has been reported that Pakistan has refused to receive Rauf, who has been pictured living in Rochdale with his family. The case has reportedly generated anger and frustration in the town, with victims of child sexual abuse having to live near their tormentors."
The article had been about the tiresome inability of the British state to deport this monster -- which is a worthwhile subject for journalism but, unfortunately, not a novelty. However, there was a telling detail that required a few days before it registered with me: "... Rauf, who has been pictured living in Rochdale with his family."
What I found incredible was that, after release from prison, this child rapist had resumed his life in Rochdale, amongst his relatives, old acquaintances and, indeed, victims.
I am certain that if the man had been white, then he would have been shunned by family and former friends, and would have been at risk of violence just by continuing to live in the town under his old identity. What usually happens is that a released sex offender will relocate and begin life anew, often under an assumed name, among people who know nothing of his past.
But when one is a Pakistani Muslim, it appears that raping infidel girls is no barrier to resuming one's former life with family and the Pakistani community. After all, he has served his time in prison (well, only two-and-a-half years out of six -- about the same as grandmothers get for hasty Facebook posts these days). I think the ability of Rauf to return to normal life says far more about what the Pakistani community thinks about his crimes than any weasel words of apology that might occasionally be uttered when one of their representatives is forced to make a statement.
And in case you think that this is just a lovely example of how generous of spirit, tolerant and forgiving one of our immigrant communities happens to be -- just remember how intolerantly the Muslims react to other events that are not actually crimes: displaying a cartoon of Mohammed in a lesson on free speech; damaging a copy of the Koran; showing the film "Lady of Heaven" in the cinema.
So there we have it. A community of people who live among us, but who have a completely different set of morals. Not just different habits when it comes to religion, clothing, diet and courtship -- but the most important protections, rights and freedoms that British law is supposed to guarantee to everyone, and the responsibilities that people have under those laws.
That is the sharp end of why multiculturalism does not work.