AN OXFORD community leader has said police should not be afraid of a “racial backlash” if it means stamping out sex grooming gangs.

Social services staff in Rochdale may have failed to stop girls being abused because they were afraid of “reprisals in the community”, according to a review published last week.

Five out of the seven men convicted earlier this month of exploiting and abusing girls as young as 11 in Oxford were of Pakistani origin.

Abdul Rouf, chairman of the Bangladesh Welfare Association in Oxford, said authorities should not be influenced by fears about racism.

He said: “They should do their duty and we will applaud them.”

Mr Rouf said it was unfair to label the gang as Islamic because he said real Muslims obeyed the law of God and the law of the land.

He said: “This is the most heinous crime in Islam.”

Mr Rouf also said he believed the gang picked on the girls, not because they were young and white, but because they were vulnerable and easy to manipulate.

He denied his religion bred negative attitudes towards women, adding: “We have to respect wo-men more than we respect men.”

Nine men were convicted in May last year of grooming and abusing girls in Rochdale. Eight of them were of Pakistani origin.

Former Oxfordshire County Council leader Keith Mitchell last week questioned whether police and social services had also been slower to react over political correctness concerns.

He wrote on his blog: “If the abusers in this case had been white men, would the police and social workers have felt more able to intervene? I suspect the answer is yes, but I do not know.”

Mohammed Altaf-Khan, Oxford city councillor for Headington Hill and Northway and chairman of the Asian Cultural Centre in Manzil Way, said he would be “very surprised” if that had been the case.

He said: “I don’t think race or religion should hold back any police or social services.”

Pat Kennedy, the city council executive member for education, crime and community safety, said it was too early to presume how authorities in Oxfordshire had failed to protect the victims.

She said: “I think we will leave that to the serious case review that will be looking in depth at a whole range of issues from police, education, and social services.”

The Rochdale review involved interviews with staff and an examination of the authority’s children’s services, licensing and legal departments. Jim Taylor, chief executive of Rochdale Borough Council, said: “The council has been prepared to learn some uncomfortable lessons.”

A serious case review was ordered by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board into how the abuse was not spotted earlier.