British Pakistanis are 13 times more likely than the general population to produce disabled children. The figures are even more shocking in places with a large Muslim population, such as Bradford, where one survey in 2011 revealed that 70 per cent of Pakistani women marry one of their relatives.
It is little wonder, then, that more than 6 per cent of all children born in the city have severe disabilities, including blindness, deafness and neuro-degenerative conditions.
Yet to set out these truths is to invoke the fury of the politically correct brigade, who refuse to consider anything that might intrude on their carefully constructed fantasy of Utopian multi-culturalism.
When I made my contribution in the Lords, arguing that ‘it is not fair to the children that they should be allowed to become disabled because of a social practice’, I was subjected to a barrage of condemnation.
One Tory peer, Lord Sheikh, warned that my speech would ‘not help community cohesion in this country’. The Muslim Council of Britain went even further, claiming that my ‘consistent bigotry has unfortunately forfeited the right to be taken seriously’.
Well, if it is bigoted to be concerned about women’s rights and disability, then I wear the insult with pride. (…)
It is also a tremendous burden on the NHS, which is already overstretched, and to the taxpayers who have to provide the funds for this healthcare.
What is extraordinary is that so many Pakistani families do not seem to care, either about the potential disability in their children or about the cost to the health service.
Knowledge about genetics has never been deeper, yet such families appear to remain trapped in ignorance or indifference. That has to change.
