The Catholic Church in Victoria has revised up the number of children it acknowledges were sexually abused by Catholic clergy and staff.

In its original submission to the Victorian child abuse inquiry, the church confirmed it had paid compensation to 620 victims.

But after analysing documents held by various orders of brothers and nuns it now says that since the 1950s at least 849 children have been abused.

In a new submission to the inquiry, the Catholic Church also includes more information on the number of offenders within its ranks.

It says 269 men and women, the majority of whom are are priests and brothers, have been found guilty of child sexual abuse.

The breakdown of those found guilty includes 114 brothers, 98 priests, nine nuns, two seminarians, 42 lay people and two listed as 'unknown'.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-06/catholic-church-revises-up-number-of-abuse-victims/4738776

Notor has a massive hard on about this.

I work for the Catholics and this is so hush hush atm.

-PB

Regardless of your beliefs, one has to realise the utterly dreadful impact on those 849 children as well those in other states.

I think the most disturbing thing is that 849 victims is just the tip of the iceberg, 1000's of people have been affected in varying degrees, I don't think we will ever know the true tally of people damaged by child abuse...and yes the Catholic Church is rightly being called to account but this goes far deeper than any one religious faith.

Edited by Joffa: 7/6/2013 12:57:38 PM

I take it these are people involved in the church community but not in an official capacity?

FACTBOX: Facts and figures on child marriage in Tanzania

Source: Fri, 7 Jun 2013 03:55 PM

Author: Kizito Makoye
More news from our correspondents


Women and girls collect seaweed from tidal pools near the village of Bwejuu on Zanzibar island, Tanzania, December 3, 2007. Picture taken December 3, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly


DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tanzania has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. On average, some two out of five girls will be married before their 18th birthday. In 2010, about 37 percent of women aged 20-24 were married or in a union before they turned 18.

The country’s marriage law, which dates from 1971, allows girls aged 14 to get married with parental consent and, according to the United Nations Population Fund, between 20 percent and 40 percent of girls do so before reaching adulthood.

CHILD MARRIAGES WORLDWIDE

Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to the United Nations Population Fund. If current levels of child marriages remain unchanged, 14.2 million girls annually or 39,000 daily will marry too young.
POVERTY

Poor families in Tanzania force their children into marriage either to settle debts or to make money and escape the cycle of poverty. Child marriage increases poverty and girls who marry young are likely to miss out on education.
Girls living in poor families are more likely to marry before the age of 18 than girls in families with a higher income.
EDUCATION

In most cases, young girls find themselves unable to complete their education due to family pressures to marry, sexual harassment, or an unwanted pregnancy. According to a survey carried out by Tanzania’s Ministry of Education, more than 16,000 girls dropped out of school from 2008 to 2010 due to pregnancy. Parents and families actively discouraged some girls to enrol in secondary school and instructed others to try to fail so they could drop out without arousing suspicion.
HEALTH

Medical practitioners and nutritionists have made it clear that a girl aged 14 or 15 is still growing and her body needs more nutritional care to achieve appropriate growth in order to pass from the child to adult stage.
Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death worldwide for women ages 15 to 19. According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (2010), a quarter of women aged 15 to 19 are pregnant or have given birth.
Young maternal age is associated with prolonged or obstructed labour, which can lead to obstetric fistula - a hole in the birth canal. In Tanzania, there are roughly 2500-3000 new cases of obstetric fistula each year.
Pregnancy is the leading cause of girls dropping out of school in Tanzania. In January 2010, a new law was passed that allowed girls to return to school after pregnancy.
The Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (2010) found that about 20 percent of 15 to 19 year old women had given birth to at least one child in Tanzania.
Child brides face a higher risk of contracting HIV because they often marry an older man with more sexual experience. Girls ages 15 to 19 are between 2 and 6 times more likely to contract HIV than boys of the same age in sub-Saharan Africa.
DISCRIMINATION

Child marriage is a product of cultures that devalue women and girls and discriminate against them. "The discrimination often manifests itself in the form of domestic violence, marital rape, and deprivation of food, lack of access to information, education, and healthcare” according to a UNICEF report entitled Child Marriage and the Law.
Child brides often show symptoms of sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress such as feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and severe depression.
OTHER FACTS

Tanzania has launched an all-encompassing social media campaign aimed at raising awareness about the need to reverse the fate of girls who are often married off at a very young age. Although Tanzania has seen some progress over the last few years, reducing child marriage by as much as 13 percent, today one in six girls aged 15 to 19 years is married.

http://www.trust.org/item/20130607155550-50lgt/?source=search

Horrible stuff. It's hard to believe that some of these men could fall so far from grace (excuse to pun).

I don't think they 'fell' anywhere, they were never really close to grace.

You wouldn't become a priest if you didn't have the right intentions. If you weren't fully committed to the cause there is just no way you'd commit yourself to that life...

However, if you hit 50 without so much as a boob grab, those young boys would be looking mightyyyy fine.

You're a disgusting human being.

What is really annoying is the implication is that it's always 'just' the Catholics when, in reality, a paedophile is a paedophile. It gets lost in the discourse of child abuse.

Never thought I'd see the day where you defend Catholicism.

I know, must be god's will. :lol: ;)

So I'm not the only one wondering where the investigation into the Scouts and other youth organisations is.

i agree with tsf as well. why is it only the catholic church ? what about the anglican church,the doctors police,scouts etc etc ??

Sports coaches would have to be up there too... Nasty stuff really

I have no doubt we'll see a Sandusky-esque case in the next few years.

No other organisation has systematically covered up their crimes like the Catholic Church.

There's ignorance, and there's explicit inhumanity.

That people still makes excuses for this tax-free cesspool of hate despite what they are finally admitting to is astonishing.

Just out of interest, who do you think is making excuses for the tax-free cesspool of hate?

No other organisation has been caught systematically covering up their crimes. That doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Deflecting well deserved attention away from the Catholic Church by talking about organisations without the history of explicitly covering up the crimes of its people, harassing and paying off victims and retaining the services of sex offenders is a form of making excuses in my opinion.

yes, but the Catholics have deliberately and systematically covered up thousands of cases worldwide. That, and the worldwide respect the Catholic church used to have is why they are particularly in the spotlight, and quite rightly.

Anyway, I'd like to see someone ask Pell, his associates and the paedophiles they covered for if they think they're going to heaven or hell, given the trauma and suicides their actions have directly caused.

I'm not sure TSF was deflecting well deserved attention away. I'm sure by no means is he in denial about the situation.

I think he was merely pointing out that the focus of retaliation linked with sexual offences seems to be directed at the Catholic Church, and that perhaps it should be more wide spread.

So have the Scouts. Why aren't they being investigated?

No.

Cut off the biggest head first.

I guess that's fair enough, However TSFs point is still completely valid...

And you should actually respond to Afro like a normal person. Giving irrelevant, one word responses does your argument little good, particularly when it's already looking shaky in this case.

In what way is it a shaky case?

Mostly just winding you up :lol:
But you were implying that TSF was making excuses for the Catholic Church. IMO he was simply saying that he gets frustrated when all media attention on the issue is directed solely on the Catholic Church as opposed the whole issue.

I'm guessing cos the scouts aren't nearly as widespread or have as much influence on people's lives as the catholic church. In my entire life i've only ever known one person that had done scouts, but i've known hundreds that are catholics.

You can almost guarantee it's happening, there have been literally scores of cases allegedly covered up in the US that are currently before the courts. You can't say "well, less people are involved in Scouts, the victims are less important".

I never said "well, less people are involved in scouts, the victims are less important", so dont put it in quotation marks. What I meant that as the church has a far larger presence in society, their crimes are going to be more widely reported on. (i also suspect that there's been more catholic cases/coverups than scouts ones, but i dont know that for sure.)

Sort of like how Pistorius' murder case is gaining so much more media attention that most others: nothing to do with reeva steenkamp's death being more tragic that other people's, its just that he is a more high profile person. Or if some guy down the street and the prime minister both stole a car, the pm's crime would be reported on, but the other guy's wont. It's just how the media works.

It's sad that notor has pushed his anti-religion, I'm right you're all wrong, reason is great if you agree with me, wankdom on us so much that this is our first thought when it's a topic on fourfourtwo.

I'm not entirely sure how pointing to the second murderer can be construed as an excuse for the first.

Something like this?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-24/scouts-refer-sex-abuse-case-to-royal-commission/4483034

The Catholic Church has spent decades covering up potentially 1000's of cases, while hiding behind god. There has likely never been over 100,000 scouts in total throughout it's history, the Catholic Church has 650,000 children in it's schools alone, and 5.5 million who identify as Catholic according to the last census.

Its' disgusting that even one child is a sex abuse victim... let alone 100s

That I may be, but at least I've never entered a young child.

I was saying this.

If all Catholics are paedos, then make some arrests because you are saving the children. Why not label all muslims are terrorists too.

These people do not represent their faiths. They are paedos and terrorists. Don't link them to a faith they know nothing about.

Deflection.

Elaborate.

Violence against Aboriginal women 80 times worse

BY CANDACE SUTTON
news.com.au
June 10, 2013 11:32AM
Aboriginal women 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault.

DO you want the shocking truth?

There's a place in the world where dreadful violence is regularly inflicted upon women - rape, terrifying assault and murder.

In this place, women of a certain ethnic group are 80 times more likely to be hospitalised for assault and injury.

Many of the assaults are perpetrated by the women's husbands or partners and include being raped with wooden or metal objects, or being murdered by being repeatedly punched and struck with a saucepan, stones, a wheel rim and a wheel brace.

Or there was the case of the man who used a hose to whip his 32-year-old wife, stomping on her abdomen and dragging her naked body over rough ground, before raping her, and then bashing her with either a stick or metal pole, causing severe internal injuries, before finishing her off with a rock.

In this place, up to 20 people live in some houses and children are stressed out and neglected.

In remote areas, up to 65 per cent of children attend school for fewer than three days a week and up to 60 per cent of them fail the national early developmental index which measures a child's ability to cope with starting school.

Apart from the outrageously high rates of violence, unemployment is rife, and thousands of people are battling alcohol and gambling abuse.

Australians who were shocked over the last few months by violent attacks on women in India should be alarmed by this.

This place is in our backyard.

It is one-third the size of India, and has .0002 of India's population.

It is Central Australia, and in particular the Northern Territory.

"There is a tri-state area in the middle of Australia which is a Bermuda triangle for domestic violence against Aboriginal women," said South Australian university lecturer and anthropologist, Professor Peter Sutton.

"People don't want to know, but how about women being raped by a burning fire stick or by a star picket?

"After the incidents in India I had a stream of emails from people wanting something done about it, but there's no petitions hitting my in-tray about what goes on in Central Australia and has done so for a very long time."

"The society where this is going on is very different from the middle-class Aboriginal people that many people know.

"These are hair trigger communities where people fly into a rage in a second.

"People are under the influence of alcohol and there are beatings and stabbings.

"Resorting to physical violence is the norm."

Dr Howard Bath, the Northern Territory's Children's Commissioner said the most recent statistics from the NT's five major government hospitals showed that in 2010 the number of non-indigenous females hospitalised for assault was 0.3 for every thousand women in the population.

The rate for indigenous females was 24.1 per thousand, or 80 times the rate.

"In numbers, that was 27 non-indigenous females being admitted, compared with 842 indigenous women being treated for assault.

"What we are looking at is a disastrous situation in terms of the risk of violence to indigenous women.

"These numbers are mind boggling. The rate of abuse of these women is enormously high and children are being exposed to this, resulting in very, very high rates of child neglect."

Aboriginal men and to a lesser extent Aboriginal women and non-indigenous men were responsible for violence against Aboriginal women.

Dr Bath blamed alcohol and drug abuse, overcrowding and "consistent unemployment".

"Alcohol is the worst factor by a country mile," he said.

"Between 60 and 70 per cent of violence is directly related to alcohol.

"The facts are generally known, but it's a delicate area.

"Most of the people who are familiar with the details don't want to put a set of shameful allegations against the Aboriginal community and in particular the menfolk."

Dr Bath agreed Australians seemed more sympathetic with cases of violence in other countries than in their own country.

"Where is the outrage?" he said.

"I think if it's close to home, it's harder to look at.

"People aren't comfortable with what is happening to women in the Northern Territory.

"And it's having devastating developmental impacts on children.

"The figures for children from very remote areas of the territory very high rates of developmental skills and school attendance rates of 65 per cent attending less than three days a week.

"That is outrageous. It's disastrous".

Northern Territory MP Bess Price said the Aboriginal and white communities had long known about the violence and done nothing.

She had been "routinely attacked", called "a liar" and "obscenely insulted on the internet" - in particular by people with left-wing political views - for raising the issue.

She told the NT Parliament last month that two of her relatives who were "young mothers" were killed in Alice Springs this year.

"One was injured mortally in the public, in front of several families," Ms Price said.

"Nobody acted to protect her.

"Dozens of my female relatives have been killed this way. Convictions usually lead to light sentences.

"I was told by a senior lawyer that no jury in Alice Springs will convict an Aboriginal person for murder if the victim is also Aboriginal and he or she is only stabbed once.

"We all have done nothing effective to stop this from happening. It has been going on for decades.

"Why hasn't there been the same outrage over the continuing killing of our women and abuse and neglect of our kids?

If these women victims were white, we would hear very loud outrage from feminists.

If their killers had been white, we would hear outrage from the Indigenous activists.

Why is there such a deafening silence when both victim and perpetrator are black?

"I believe that we can blame the politics of the progressive left and its comfortably middle class urban Indigenous supporters."

###



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/violence-against-aboriginal-women-80-times-worse/story-e6frfkp9-1226661209335#ixzz2Vmubmk9S

So you're sayign in theory there should be one report mentioning the Scouts for every ~550 reports about the Catholic Church?

Also, FWIW the Scouts have often been affiliated with the Catholic Church, and were founded by a man who throughout his life had many questions about his sexuality and penchant for young men raised. Not that you hear hoof beats and think Zebras, but there's a correlation there.

Child abuse is not an exclusive Catholic Church problem, it is a society problem.....schools, orphanages, family homes, workplace, social clubs, sport clubs and yes religious orders including the Catholic Church are but some of the places where horrific acts of Child abuse have occurred and they should all be held to account. No doubt the actions of the Catholic Church have been particularly disturbing and they should be held accountable for their actions....but their not alone in their shame.

Yes, but the problem here is that Notor has specifically said that by talking about other youth organisations with a history of child abuse you are excusing what the Catholic Church has done.

An excuse abrogates responsibility, it is a justification or a defence to a particular offence. For example, self-defence excuses an assault. Working by analogy, what Notor claims is that by accusing a different person of a separate murder, you are excusing or justifying a totally separate murder. This would be ridiculous, because the second crime, even if it's the same offence like murder or child abuse, is an entirely different crime with a different victim.

Nobody here is justifying the actions of the Catholic Church. To suggest that the allegation that other organisations are involved in child abuse, or may be involved, or even have an opportunity to be involved in light of their responsibilities, justifies the actions of the Catholic Church takes some literary gymnastics and it does not follow.

I think you're either misunderstanding, or characterising what I am saying.

It's a bit like saying "Yeah, Hitler is bad... but he's not the only one that has committed Genocide. Hitler might have killed 6 million Jews, but look at the Turks - they killed at least 600,000 Armenians!"

You are saying that accusing the Turks of a genocide excuses Hitler's genocide.

An excuse abrogates responsibility. It's not happening.

Have to stick up for Joffa on this one. Not to sound like a goody two-shoes, but why can't you guys just take each others' word when it comes to your motives? If someone says they aren't making excuses and think what the Roman Catholic Church did was wrong but want to talk about the wider social problem, why do you have to assign motives that say otherwise? Your concern is right, we don't want to somehow whitewash the RCC problem away and there may be an unintentional deflecting of guilt if we talk about all the instances of abuse, but Joffa and others have said several times that their intent is not to excuse the RCC so why assume otherwise?

The question then becomes which is more important? Examining wider sex abuse in all society with the potential unintended consequence that the RCC example doesn't seem so bad OR just exploring the RCC case so that they are appropriately punished whilst letting the countless other examples and societal problems go unchecked?

Let notorganic continue his illogical tirade of hate against the church. It's hilarious.

I wasn't inferring or correlating anything, simply responding to the deflection about other groups (ie the Scouts) covering up things as well.

Note: Another group covering up sex abuse doesn't make the paedophile priests cover ups any less disgraceful.

All crimes should be considered equally heinous and given equal air time.

:lol:

Now THAT'S hilarious.

Looking forward to seeing your last bout of tax return fraud appearing on the nightly news alongside Syria's use of chemical weapons on its own people.

That's not what I meant and you know it you twat.

And what the hell is with you accusing me of committing crimes with absolutely no evidence?

Edited by afromanGT: 11/6/2013 08:45:53 PM

So you admit to cheating on your tax return!

Nice edit.

Edited by Notorganic: 11/6/2013 08:46:34 PM

No, but Syrian war crimes don't excuse tax fraud either.

No, they don't... And incessant mention of tax fraud when the far bigger issue that needs immediate attention and resources is Syrian war crimes is a huge disservice to the people of Syria.

All talking about Syria does is draw a curtain over the lunacy that is the amount of jaywalking in our towns and cities. :x

That's right: nobody is excusing anything. Frankly anything after that is conjecture if the catholic church's responsibility isn't being diminished by the possibility of a second crime by a second organisation.

Since I obviously need to reiterate this for notorganic's puerile mind:

All of these child molestation accusations are equally abhorrent aberrations should be uniformly investigated. They are as heinous as each other and should be equally attended to by the powers that be, regardless of the organisation accused of perpetrating them.

People have been defending the Catholic Church for decades as these allegations arose, now the allegations have largely been proven true, on a shale far larger than what anyone originally anticipated, why do you still think that people are defending the church and if not excuse; minimise the responsibility of the church.

Assuming that you disagree with the premise I'm placing here, why do you think the initial reaction to any criticism of the church is to defend and accuse the critic of "hatred" and bigotry - even when that criticism proves valid?

As for "god" on a broader theological criticism, this is an excellent example of the Problem of Evil.

Nobody is doing that, nobody is excusing anything or diminishing the responsibility of the Catholic Church: that's the bloody point! I've put the point forward that by seeking to investigate other youth organisations and tackling a societal problem, you are not diminishing the responsibility of the first offender nor are you defending or excusing it. To assume as such is wrong, and against the basic principles of logic.

People are criticising you because of your clear agenda on anything religion - look at your last comment, "God" as a problem of evil? That is bigotry, and you are a bigot. It works both ways. That might be ad hominen, and it's not related to my actual argument: that a second allegation does not create an excuse. However, many believe, including myself, that your agenda against religion is clouding your judgement.

A few weeks ago you posted a thread with a picture about how big the universe was and then you've got Jesus telling you not to wank. Sure, that was a laugh, but it was still nothing short of an exercise in ego-stroking and of mockery of anyone with a religious belief. I'm not a religious man, but it bloody well irritates me when people know what's good for you. Come on mate, you're a smart enough bloke and I agree with you on a lot, but you're better than that, you're better than intolerance.

Like I said, that was a dissemination of your motive - which I think is the real underlying question here that nobody particularly fancies bringing up (probably for good reason).

Interesting. Professor Richard Dawkins made the comment in a TED speech that the reason for 9/11 was tolerance and that we should become more intolerant.
I personally don't tolerate an absence of reason.

How is it bigotry to discuss the fact that any benelovent/loving god would never let one (let alone hundreds) of its charges rape a kid? It's not bigotry, it's simply dissenting to the status quo.

As someone who studies religion, and doesn't tolerate an absence of reason, where do you stand from a religious point of view?

Dawkins is a clever man, and a bigot. If people want to seek out theological criticism I say go for it, but don't shove it down my throat and don't shove it down anyone else's either. When you talk about tolerance you're always going to get caught up in a paradox: a tolerant society would be tolerant of intolerance. Nevertheless, it's the arrogance of it all that gets up me.

"How is it bigotry to discuss the fact that any benelovent/loving god would never let one (let alone hundreds) of its charges rape a kid? It's not bigotry, it's simply dissenting to the status quo."
Who cares? We're talking about the sexual abuse of children and you're talking about some philosophical question.

No-one is doing that. Everyone would be acknowledging that "Hitler killed 6 million Jews and that he was up there with the worst, but that doesn't mean we should make him the only name synonymous with genocide."

That is the major accusation of you here if I'm not mistaken.

The Catholic Church regularly flouts its moral superiority, despite the fact that a large number of its priests have been fucking kids for a very long time (and were actively being protected by the church itself). It's a worthy discussion point.

Point taken... Do what's the discussion? What would you have the Australian govt do about it in a Notor run world?

In relation to child abuse specifically, or general religious privilege?

:lol: :lol: :lol:
You needed to pick up on the sarcasm with the 'Fred Nile Institute'....

Awwwww shit.....

Windhoek — According to statistics, 120 schoolgirls fell pregnant in the Opuwo and Epupa education circuits in the Kunene Region out of a total of 6 057 learners.

A social worker in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare Dephney Dunga said teenage pregnancy in the region has reached critical proportions. She reported that teenagers as young as 13 are falling pregnant and many see no problem with it as they feel they have nothing to lose. She attributed teenage pregnancies to poverty, saying young girls date older men to get support in the form of money or food, which they can take home. The social worker further explained that many statutory rape cases are not reported since perpetrators offer families money to keep them from reporting cases to the police.

At the Welwitschia Junior Secondary School at Khorixas alone, 16 girls became pregnant last year. One of the Welwitschia girls allegedly experienced a miscarriage at the hostel in October 2012 and was rushed to the Khorixas State Hospital. It was also reported on Tuesday that male and female learners at the Okaoko-Otavi Combined School near Opuwo are forced to share accommodation due to a lack of hostel facilities. The school has 326 learners, of whom only 64 are accommodated in the hostel. The rest stay with relatives or are accommodated by villagers, where they are compelled to share accommodation.

Okaoko-Otavi Combined School Principal, Paulus Karutjaiva, confirmed that five girls from his school fell pregnant last year as a result of sharing of rooms.

New Era contacted the Kunene regional education deputy director, Bernadette Jagger, on the situation at the school. She said the lack of hostel accommodation is a countrywide problem and not only confined to the Kunene Region. She explained that Okaoko-Otavi only has one subsidised government hostel, which cannot accommodate all learners.

"Hostel accommodation is not enough due to the high influx of learners. When learners come, we cannot turn them away. Their parents are deep in the bush far from schools. However, the principal alerted the parents on the shortage of accommodation and asked them to look for places for their children to live in the village. The parents found accommodation for their kids. Since it is outside accommodation, the situation of sharing and girls falling pregnant is out of our hands," she maintained.

She was however quick to point out that they cannot turn a blind eye to the situation. "We will call the kids' biological parents and tell them that the accommodation they found for their children is not safe since boys and girls are sharing resulting in pregnancies. You also find that those girls in the hostel are not the ones falling pregnant. Instead it is those kids who live under the noise of their relatives and parents. It is shocking. It is young girls whose bodies are not ready for such activities," Jagger said.

The Namibia National Students Organisation (Nanso) says it is disturbed by the conditions in which the learners, both boys and girls at the Okaoko-Otavi Combined School find themselves in, such as the sharing of hostel beds due to the lack of accommodation facilities. The Okaoko-Otavi Combined School is situated some 40 kilometres southwest of Opuwo in the Kunene Region.

"The need for accommodation at schools in Kunene has reached critical proportions. It is no secret in Namibia that the bulk of the budget is allocated to the Ministry of Education but it is spent on administration rather than uplifting and infrastructure. The ministry of education should take serious consideration of accommodation in Kunene, while the learners have shown willpower to learn in the poverty driven and most undeveloped region in the country. A conducive learning environment is not created and this leads to a high dropout rate as parents don't see school as a safe place for their children," said Nanso's Deputy Secretary General Kavetu Kavetu.

The organisation has been busy organising a regional conference on education that was slated to take place on May 30, but was postponed due to a lack of funding.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201306171195.html?aa_source=acrdn-f0

Imams in 500 mosques to denounce grooming and abuse of children

Co-ordinated effort to deliver same sermon across the country follows convictions of Muslim men for series of horrific cases

The Guardian, Friday 28 June 2013

Imams in 500 mosques across Britain will on Friday give the same sermon denouncing the grooming and sexual abuse of children.

The co-ordinated effort follows the convictions of Muslim men in British courts for a series of horrific cases. Organisers say it is the first time that so many imams will deliver the same sermon before hundreds of congregations.

The sermons will urge people to report those suspected of involvement in sexual abuse offences, and opens with a quotation from the Qur'an which forbids Muslims from "sexual indecency, wickedness and oppression of others".

The courts have dealt with a cluster of horrific cases including those in Rochdale, Derby and Oxford, where on Thursday five men were sentenced to life imprisonment and two others to long sentences for the abuse of girls.

It is organised by a group called Together Against Grooming, and backed by bodies including the Muslim Council of Britain, the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, and the Islamic Society of Britain.

One of the organisers is Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, who serves as an imam and scholar, and who will deliver the sermon in a Leicester mosque.

Some have claimed the gang grooming on streets and abuse of girls is disproportionately linked to Asian Muslim men.

Mogra said: "This is an abhorrent issue … that spares no race, religion, as perpetrators or victims. We are not required to do this, it is our religious and civic duty. The Qur'an calls on us to speak out against injustice."

Lunchtime prayers on a Friday are the most important of the week for Muslims, the equivalent of the Sunday morning service for Christians.

Mogra said: "It is important to do it this way to have a national impact throughout many congregations. We hope to create a debate."

Ansar Ali, spokesperson for Together Against Grooming, said: "We have been horrified by the details that have emerged from recent court cases and, as Muslims, we feel a natural responsibility to condemn and tackle this crime.

"This is the start of what will be a nationwide project in which we seek to work with others to eradicate this practice."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/28/imamas-500-mosques-denounce-grooming?

No no no that can't be right because according to notor and Ozzie only catholics can be pedo's