Quilliam Report Finally DESTROYED

After those examining the “research” from the Quilliam Foundation, and finding it wanting, despite many, especially those out on the far right, quoting extensively from it, suggested that Maajid Nawaz admit he and his pals got it wrong, The Great Man instead went on the attack, claiming he was being targeted by privileged white people from what he called the regressive left. They were, he claimed, vicious. And he was totally wrong.

We know this as the Quilliam “research” has now not merely been debunked, but utterly destroyed, by UCL lecturer and researcher Dr Ella Cockbain, who has literally written the book on human trafficking. Her latest conclusions are in four Twitter threads which you can read HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. From these, there is no way back for Quilliam’s claims. And some of her findings make for worrying reading.

Under the heading “Why you shouldn’t trust @QuilliamOrg ‘s report on #groominggangs & the claim that 84% of ‘grooming gang offenders’ are Asian. An evidence-based critique”, Dr Cockbain reminds us “many dislike the term ‘Asian’, but I use it here because it’s what is captured as standard in police & court statistics (national background & religion aren’t). Also, not all ‘Asian groomers’ were Pakistani heritage”.

Moreover, “There are numerous examples of unsubstantiated, misleading, misattributed, misinterpreted and/or untrue information running through @QuilliamOrg 's report … There is also a glaring lack of transparency … The report is also full of contradictions”.

What information was included in the Quilliam report? “Were crimes against male victims included in the analysis? If not, why not? What about abusers operating online, in schools, places of worship, sports clubs etc? We know from elsewhere that grooming & group abuse happen in these contexts too … If these contexts were included, @QuilliamOrg 's final numbers seem very low. I suspect they were excluded. Their inclusion could have dramatically altered the results … the source of the data is never stated”.

Was the data from news sources? “If using news sources, it's a big mistake to overlook #mediabias – especially as coverage of ‘grooming gangs’ has been very racialised. Crimes involving sex, children & race ‘sell' & stories fitting an established narrative tend to get more coverage … The ‘analysis’ section is little more than an exercise in speculation about factors in Muslim & Pakistani culture supposedly driving abuse in the UK”.

And that overrepresentation of Muslims in the figures? Well, “relative to the general population, Asians were actually underrepresented (at 4%) among the approx. 6,200 defendants prosecuted in 2015/2016 for sexual offences flagged as related to child abuse”. And Dr Cockbain concludes “I think the first thing we all need to do is stop using @QuilliamOrg’s dodgy ‘research’ & its 84% statistic: it's about as credible as Andrew Wakefield on MMR. Thanks in part to uncritical reporting, it seems to have become ‘fact’ by repetition alone”. So what has Maajid Nawaz so far had to say in response?

Nothing. Nil. Nix. Nada. Not a sausage. So the question has to be, why not? His “research” has been totally discredited. All he has managed so far is a welter of abuse. That 84% figure is going to steadily lose ground. He keep quiet, he ceases to be credible.

The usefulness of Quilliam’s “research” was for a time, but not for all time.

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