Since Elon Musk’s tweets triggered an earthquake in the British national debate about the widespread gang rape of young white girls by predominantly Pakistani Muslim men, South African-born, Oxford-educated imam Taj Hargey has taken up the cudgel against a supremacist, patriarchal Muslim subculture he calls “theological populism.”
In the subculture, which Hargey describes as the root of the grooming-gang crisis, self-appointed Sunni fundamentalist imams, often trained in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, give their male congregants religious sanction to control Muslim women, denigrate non-Muslim women, and frighten children into “submission” to Islam. Hargey’s forthright response to the crisis stands in sharp contrast to Islamists such as the publishers of 5Pillars who have tried to downplay the links between the Islamist worldview and abuse of women by Muslims in the U.K.
Hargey, who founded the reformist think-tank the Oxford Institute for British Islam in 2022 in an attempt to “theologically empower” British Muslims to reject divisive narratives hostile to British society, recently backed the establishment of a statutory investigation into the rape-gang crisis and urged the U.K. authorities to “fearlessly delve into the ideology that perpetuates the noxious ‘them and us’ mindset within these grooming cabals. This serves to legitimize the rape of ‘immoral’ infidel (kafir) women. Such pernicious separatist and supremacist propaganda is aggravated by a prejudiced Muslim clergy.” He added that “this extremist theology is a total distortion of original Qur’anic precepts, which obliges believers to live harmoniously and be responsible citizens.”
Hargey’s demand for a thorough investigation of the grooming gang crisis follows nearly two decades of scandal in Britain, during which groups of mostly Pakistani Muslim men have sexually exploited thousands of young, white British girls. Starting in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, and Oxford, gangs systematically targeted vulnerable children, often as young as 11, subjecting them to rape, torture, trafficking, and psychological abuse. Authorities initially ignored or minimized the crimes, partly fearing accusations of “Islamophobia,” and treated offenders as isolated individuals operating on the margins of the nighttime economy, such as taxi drivers and kebab-shop workers.
When the story finally broke in 2009 and police started doing their jobs, Hargey wrote about the influence of radical sects such as Wahhabis, Deobandis, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Tablighi Jamaat. These groups, Hargey argues, spread a misogynistic and separatist interpretation of Islam at odds with true Quranic teachings, which emphasize harmony and respect for women. By calling openly for reform and demanding a fearless investigation into the ideologies fuelling these grooming gangs, Hargey confronts the religious roots of the crisis head-on, urging Muslims and the British public alike to tackle extremism directly.
“Sadly, as long as this contrived theological populism goes unchallenged,” Hargey told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), “most followers of Islam will persist in their superiority complex over ‘wicked heathens.’ To eradicate the scourge of Muslim rape gangs, it is imperative for brave Muslims, with the support of the British public, to actively counter this nefarious Islamic fundamentalism. Nothing else will be more productive.”
Remains Critical of Israel
Hargey remains critical of U.K. support for Israel. In May 2024, the Jewish Chronicle reported that Hargey declared that U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer needed to be “called out” for having Jews as close family members which caused him to “pussyfoot around” when dealing with Israel. “Hargey also accused both former Home Secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman of being ‘married to a Zionist,’” the Jewish Chronicle reported.
He clarified his position to FWI last week declaring, “The media in this country is not being 100% fair and impartial. I think, yes, we should call out extremism from every side, whether it is Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or of any other kind of religion.”
He added “Yes, let’s look at Palestinian textbooks all by all means. But let’s look at Zionist textbooks as well, the textbooks of the Jewish, of the Israeli state. How do they describe the formation of Israel? Zionists never talk about the emergence of Israel. They only talk about the existence of Israel.”
“The Zionists have succeeded in depicting every Palestinian resisting as a terrorist. I will use the harshest terms I can to talk about mindless murder, mayhem, bloodshed, you name it. I would call Hamas militants, gangsters, hoodlums, whatever. But I’m not going to use the word terrorist. Every human being has a right to resist occupation and tyranny.”
Promotes Rights of Women
Nevertheless, Hargey remains vocal in his condemnation of the role Muslims played in the grooming gangs. “We need a reformation that saves Islam from foreign-inspired zealots,” he declared. “The rampant oppression of women in Muslim society does not stem from the Koran but is chiefly the product of misogynistic hadith. For example, a famous ‘authentic’ hadith declares that there will be a preponderance of women in Hell. But the facts here on earth suggest otherwise – male criminality far exceeds that of females.”
[Hargey] is the only person in this country promoting female imams.
Hargey Garnering Support
Usama Hasan, a senior analyst in Geopolitics at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and a visiting research fellow at Hargey’s Oxford Institute for British Islam critiqued the regressive influence of a patriarchal clergy in a June 2023 report entitled Reclaim Political Islam From the Islamists to Raise Moderate Muslim Voices declaring, “Exclusivist, fundamentalist approaches to politics often result in the rule of clergy or men (clerocracy) who claim to know the mind of God, whereas inclusivist approaches are naturally pluralistic, both religiously and politically.”
Hasan told FWI, “A lot of people have been impacted by Dr. Hargey’s work. They don’t get as much attention as the angry fundamentalists, but there is small but growing community of Liberal progressive Muslims who believe in the Qur’an but are rational and committed to universal human rights and equality. They are grappling with the Qur’an.”
He added “[Hargey] is the only person in this country promoting female imams. At the annual conference of his Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford, Amina Wadud, Raheel Raza and other women have delivered Friday prayers. They are at the radical, cutting-edge of reform. But we need more pluralist Muslim voices like this.”
Fiyaz Mughal, founder of counter-extremism charities Faith Matters and Muslims Against Antisemitism, as well as Tell Mama, which monitors and supports victims of anti-Muslim hate crime, told FWI he supports Hargey’s analysis that ‘theological populism’ is a root cause of grooming gang offending. “’Them and us’ is a dividing line still, and some of the overt language that is used in mosques: that Muslims are uniquely different to the wider population because of their dress and behaviour versus the wider population’s behaviour.”
Mughal adds “Within many of these mosques there is no sense that we are part of a larger set of individuals, communities and a nation state. No sense of building empathic connections with other people, and that actually other people are just like us. So their congregations are detached, defensive, hold onto nonsensical belief patterns, and corrosive ideas. Meanwhile every time there’s a major crisis, whether it’s Gaza-Israel, terrorist bombings, or the rise of extreme groups, the perspective that we are distinctly different, we are under threat, we have to defend our religion - is reinforced in Islamic institutions across the U.K. What you have is an embattled community further embattling its own mindset.”
It does come down to the state actively enforcing its values, Mughal said. “What are the values of the nation that people should be proud to live with and become part of? Unless we systematically transmit that and leave a legacy for successive governments, we are not going to get a handle on this problem.”