COULD pornography and misogynistic American hip-hop music be de-sensitising young Muslim males, encouraging them to think it’s cool to be sexually violent to women?

This is the hidden cultural aspect of the crime of grooming, says Huddersfield University sociologist and youth worker Dr Shamim Miah. He wrote: “Consuming pornography is no longer merely a private act, and neither is the location from which pornography is consumed. The now ubiquitous nature of ‘porn’ means that people can have access to it instantly, unlike in the past when it was something which had to be searched for in restricted places.

“Pornography plays an important role in how the female body is viewed and sex stereotypes are developed. This is crucial because pornography , consumed in this way, is then used to inform present and future relationships with the opposite sex.

“The consumers expect women to behave as they behave in pornographic films and videos, giving rise to certain expectations of sexual relationships.”

Last week police admitted they are “worried” that they know of only one Asian girl, among a total of 54 children, currently regarded as being at high risk from sexual exploitation in Bradford.

It is believed that grooming victims from the Pakistani community may be reluctant to complain for fear of the shame they associate with their ordeal.

On Thursday the Professional Muslims Institute brought together a panel of local and national experts on the issue for a meeting in Bradford to discuss that community’s response to the problem.

Bradford Independent councillor and peripatetic imam Alyas Karmani agrees with Dr Miah. He said: “Pornography is a massive issue. Young people don’t just watch it: they are immersed in it. Gonzo Porn, as it’s called, is extremely violent and degrading in which rape is an expression of male assertiveness.

“Young men become completely de-sensitised to this material. Masculinity has become distorted. Young men think it’s about being violent and dominant.”

Since 2006 Cllr Karmani has actively worked with both victims of violent sexual abuse and perpetrators of it through STREET – Strategy to Reach, Empower and Educate Teenagers, of which he is co-director.

“We do a workshop on gangsta rap, de-constructing the imagery. Imagine kids smoking weed and listening to this music. You have no positive male role models in your peer group. There is a nexus of drug supply, pimping and trafficking.

“Through intensive one-to-one talking, where we lay down the legal and moral boundaries, we try to stop the supply of young boys and men who aspire to the gangster lifestyle – having access to drugs and money, bringing girls to party houses where there are older men,” he added.

It can start with social media, sharing intimate explicit images with friends and then using this for purposes of leverage and control over a girl. In this kind of culture girls are objectified as things in the control of men. Sexually degrading and abusing females becomes “normative behaviour” for gangs which have no vital connection with mainstream society. Jaswinder Sanghera’s organisation, Karma Nirvana, campaigns on behalf of Asian women subjected to violence and abuse through forced marriage. She told the T&A three years ago that in her experience public officials were nervous about accusations of racism.

She said: “Professionals know what is happening, but have been disarmed when dealing with other communities. They fear being called ‘racist’.”

At the 2012 Liverpool Crown Court sexual grooming trial of nine men from Oldham and Rochdale Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of of the Ramadhan Foundation, accused Pakistani community elders of “burying their heads in the sand” on the issue of on-street grooming.

He told the BBC: “There is a significant problem for the British Pakistani community. There should be no silence in addressing the issue of race as this is central to the actions of these criminals.”

Whistle-blowers afraid of reprisals from grooming gangs should be protected by local communities, said former Bradford magistrate Bary Malik, a JP for 21 years.

“It has to be done at grassroots level. Communities have to condemn this crime strongly and make sure the authorities know about these criminals.

“Most of the culprits were born here. There may be a clash of cultures, but that’s not an excuse, not at all.”