Fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic prevented British officials from prosecuting Muslim gangs engaged in the rape and sexual trafficking of children in the northern English town of Rotherham.

A scathing report recently issued by the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council chronicles the systematic rape and sexual exploitation of children by gangs of Pakistani Muslims, and the abysmal failure of government officials to prosecute the guilty and protect the innocent.

The report, entitled “Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013)” documents the sexual abuse and exploitation of more than 1400 children over a 16 year period, mainly by Muslim men of Pakistani heritage.

Attempting to explain why local officials ignored and denied the ongoing abuse, Professor Alexis Jay, author of the report commissioned by the Rotherham Borough Council, said:

Several councillors interviewed believed that by opening up these issues they could be ‘giving oxygen’ to racist perspectives that might in turn attract extremist political groups and threaten community cohesion.

About the victims, Jay notes:

It is hard to describe the appalling nature of the abuse that child victims suffered. They were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten, and intimidated.

The report indicates victims were often gang raped, while others were groomed and trafficked across northern England.

When children attempted to expose the abuse, they were threatened with guns, warned that their loved ones would be raped and, in one case, doused in petrol and told they would be burnt alive.

Many area Muslims were outraged after finding out that political correctness prevented authorities from recognizing the community’s sexual-abuse problem. Muhbeen Hussain, founder of British Muslim Youth, said: