A FEW years ago I became involved in a little online dispute with left-wing Brisbane feminist Kim Jameson. It all began when Kim criticised visiting Somalian author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation who subsequently abandoned her Muslim faith.

“Her view on Islam,” wrote Kim, “is too much coloured by her own experience”. Well, yes. Having your genitals destroyed by some maniac with a knife might tend to have that effect.

Jameson then considered the overall subject of Islamic girl-cutting: “I believe the best step that can be taken to work against it is to give support to those who are best-placed to do so where it occurs, not to politicise the issue.”

The left politicises every other issue; why not this one? What’s the problem? Uncharacteristically, Jameson urged a cautious, quiet approach: “It would also be useful to know more about what sorts of methods those working against the practice in Australia are using. It would seem to me counterproductive to have loud denunciations of it — the key thing should be to convince people it is wrong.”

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My response, back in the day: “You’d think if there was one issue on which a Western feminist might be moved to loud denunciation, it’d be the genital mutilation of little girls. But no; this instead turns out to be an issue (one of the few) about which the likes of Kim are inclined to shut the hell up. In the rock-scissors-paper hierarchy of the modern left, sensitivity to Islam trumps clitoral scissors every time.”

Horrific events in the UK now demonstrate the consequences of Western “sensitivity” towards Islam. Last week a report revealed that at least 1400 children had been subjected to sexual torture in the northern England town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The perpetrators were mostly Pakistani men. Professor Alexis Jay’s report found cases of “children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone.”

Rotherham has a population of 250,000. You would think during those 16 years of systematic sexual abuse that someone might have noticed or that some of the victims and their families would have come forward. And, in fact, many did. But authorities, following the “no loud denunciation” rule, largely ignored them. Aside from the jailing of five men for sexual offences against girls in 2010, the attacks just continued.

Denis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012, explained why: “There was a culture of not wanting to rock the multi-cultural community boat, if I may put it like that. Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and liberal leftie, I suppose I didn’t want to raise that too hard.” Nobody did. According to Professor Jay’s report: “Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so.”

It wasn’t just council staff who were aware children were being abducted and raped. Everybody knew. Absolutely everybody. “As soon as I commenced in April 2005 as Rotherham’s first director of children’s services, I was briefed by politicians, senior managers and frontline staff about the issue of sexual exploitation of young people,” Sonia Sharp revealed last week. “We knew that there were many children in the community at risk.”

So what happened next? Nothing, basically, apart from a truly outstanding level of bureaucratic blame-avoidance. “There was a lot to do,” Sharp said. “Shifting attitudes, raising the quality of services for these vulnerable children, improving early identification and strategies for prevention …”

Please stop. (Sharp, incidentally, has since found subsequent employment in Australia. She’s a deputy secretary with the Victorian education department.)

Timidity is ongoing, even in the report’s wake. UK writer James Delingpole noted a BBC item on the Rotherham outrage ran for 20 paragraphs before mentioning the ethnic identity of the perpetrators. Not to be outdone, a piece on the ABC’s AM program last week took 23 paragraphs before this line appeared: “Most of the offenders in Rotherham were from the town’s Pakistani community.” And then there was this classic line from The Guardian: “The scale of the sexual exploitation revealed in the Jay inquiry is shocking, but let’s avoid racial stereotyping.”

Do these people ever consider that there just might be one or two things even worse than the dreaded racial stereotyping? Such as the destruction of 1400 young lives, for example?

By avoiding issues of ethnicity and faith, we avoid a proper examination of wrongs committed by members of certain ethnicities and faiths. As Mark Steyn put it: “Not every Muslim wants to chop your head off. Not every Muslim wants to ‘groom’ your 11-year-old daughter. But these pathologies nest within Islam, and thrive at the intersection of Islam and the West.” He’s right. And they will keep on thriving unless we get loud about it.

COUNCILS CONSUME TOO MANY PC PILLS

LEICHHARDT Council is committed to “valuing and supporting the arrival and safe settlement of refugees and humanitarian entrants”, recent council minutes read.

But there’s a significant problem. It’s difficult to value and support people who aren’t there: “The number of refugees residing in Leichhardt is, however, very low due to the high housing costs of the area.”

The council’s solution? Work experience for refugees! Or refugee, singular. Leichhardt’s rulers are now investigating “the feasibility of dedicating one skilled work experience position a year to assist the employment pathway of a person of refugee or humanitarian entrant background”.

Sounds great. Over at Marrickville Council, they’re taking an equally bold approach: “At council’s February 4, 2014 meeting it was resolved to reaffirm council’s commitment as a refugee welcome zone through the installation of signage at council’s main public buildings and public spaces.”

Impressive. A couple of months ago Marrickville Council, in partnership with the Marrickville Multicultural Interagency, hosted a refugee forum featuring “performances from Kween G, who performed some of her original work and hip-hop songs, the Marrickville African dance group from Marrickville High’s intensive language program and the Sydney Trade Union and Solidarity Choir.”

Why wasn’t I told? At Canada Bay Council, they’re stopping racism via council resolutions: “Produce outdoor mesh campaign banners — for installation at Rhodes Railway, Five Dock Leisure Centre and where feasible, other council locations; provide a virtual notice board display of ‘What to do if you witness racism on a bus’.” Beats me. Take the train instead, maybe.

Councillors could probably use a reminder of their actual role and the limited extent of their authority. Here’s a tip: walk outside your council chambers and take a look at the building. Count the floors. If it isn’t 39 storeys high, and Ban Ki-moon isn’t inside, then it probably is not the UN. Adjust your policies accordingly.