CHILD ABUSE

Revelations about child abuse by priests may have shocked the faithful, but now comes evidence that it is not just in Christian places of worship that this occurs. "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, ... "what was suggested was that the alleged abuser should be allowed to remain in the mosque." ...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. ...To compound Khan's belief that ethnic communities needed a wake-up call on child protection issues, a child abuse scandal broke at Glasgow's central mosque. Taher Din was jailed for a year after sexually molesting two young boys at the iconic building near the Clyde. ..During the trial, there were suggestions that officials from the mosque may have tried to cover up the attacks." (Sunday Herald, 19 August) RD