British MP tweets that sex abuse victims should shut up ‘for the good of diversity’

Equality and Human Rights Commission chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath has condemned the Labour MP saying: “Ms Shah should know better. We need to keep the victims of these horrific crimes at the heart of the debate.”

Naz Shah retweeted and liked a post on Twitter from a parody account, clearly not understanding the biting sarcasm of the original tweet.

In true British style, the tweeter had parodied left-wing writer Owen Jones: “Those abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere just need to shut their mouths. For the good of diversity”. Shah, who is not from the UK, obviously did not understand the dark sarcasm often expressed by Brits, and retweeted the message as a “positive” statement.

Her clumsy effort has reignited the furious and widespread indignation over Pakistani sex gangs, so-called “grooming gangs” in Britain.

Shah quickly deleted the retweet and unliked the post, after it was explained to her that shutting up sexual harrassment victims might not be such a good public position to take. Clearly she had not considered it before she retweeted the post.

She also has been a key figure in leading the outrage against a column written by The Sun’s Trevor Kavanagh about the grooming gangs recently. Shah, who served on the influential House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, wrote The Sun’s piece was “irresponsible” and that it set “a dangerous precedent”.

Kavanagh’s column dared to mention that the grooming gang in Newcastle – it includes Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxfordshire, Oldham – did not consist of “Asian” men but specifically men of Muslim origin.

Mainstream newspapers do not mention this, preferring “Asian” and thereby showing a willingness to mislead their readers into thinking that organised gangs of Koreans and Japanese have been gang-raping young white girls across Britain over recent years.

Kavanagh ended his piece with a reference to Britain’s “Muslim problem”. It led to the usual predictable, organised, backlash against Kavanagh for telling the truth, led by the Muslim Council of Britain and Labour MP Shah.

She organised an open letter to The Sun signed by 107 MPs “demanding action” against “Islamophobia”. The British-born Muslim MP, 43, accused Kavanagh of using “Nazi-like terminology”.

Last year the Bradford West MP was suspended by Labour for anti-semitic online posts despite her most recent comments against “Nazis”. She likened Israeli policies to those of Hitler, but later blamed her anti-semitism on “ignorance”.

Some 20 white girls gave evidence during the trials at Newcastle crown court, which saw 17 Pakistanis and one woman jailed for grooming.

After the prosecutions against the grooming gang in Newcastle last week, the BBC’s Newsnight held a discussion with four young Muslims; within minutes the panel had decided that the case had nothing to do with religion.