ACCORDING to the BBC: “’The Muslim Council of Britain’, ‘The Mosque and Imams National Advisory Board’ and ‘The Islamic Society of Britain’ all pledged to devote sermons to the issue of sexual grooming”.

Welcome news. However, Monawar Hussain, Imam at Eton College, opposed the sermon, saying it “would play into the hands of far-right groups” who “will point to this and say ‘I told you so’”.

If anything is playing into the hands of fascists, it is the denialism of clerics like him.

What fascist groups are pointing to is that they were drawing attention to street grooming (for their own vile motives) when the establishment and media were not.

As for there being “no Muslim on the face of this earth that does not know that child sexual abuse is evil and wicked”, the Oxford gang were Mosque-goers and the message didn’t sink in for them, or the mother of two of the men who said: “the girls went from Oxford to London on the train. Are they not old enough then? Nobody can feel sorry for them unless they’re sorry themselves.”

Of course, the majority of Muslims don’t condone this, but a statement such as Monawar Hussain’s is denying reality.

As the “founder of ‘The Oxford Foundation’ which runs educational programmes to promote religious and social harmony”, I would suggest the best thing which he could do for harmony would be to resign from the position which he has brought into disrepute.

IAIN SIMPSON, Peppercorn Avenue, Headington