Shakespeare’s heroes often grapple with some psychological issues, such as Hamlet’s famous indecisiveness. ‘To be or not to be; that’s the question.’ The English playwrights took this line from the Greeks. Their heroes habitually exhibit traits that can align with modern psychological problems. Hercules suffers from intermittent explosive disorder. The character of Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, a self-centered personality style, and when in extreme it leads to the narcissistic personality disorder, marked by grandiosity, excessive need for attention and admiration, and an inability to empathise.
Presently there has appeared another character with a narcissistic trait to have a bulletproof belief in his abilities. A recent survey conducted in the UK and Germany concludes that most people consider Elon Musk’s gung-ho raids into their national politics unacceptable. This perception follows a barrage of prickly remarks made by Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X targeting the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Musk incited outrage with a post on X labelling Scholz, a Social Democrat, “an incompetent fool” while heaping praise on the far-right AfD leader, Alice Weidel. He branded the UK as a “tyrannical police state” while dubbing Starmer, “utterly despicable” and,” deeply complicit in mass rapes in exchange for votes.”
The X owner, who is viewed unfavorably in both the UK and Germany, is a close ally of President Trump. After reportedly spending some $250 million to aid Trump being reelected, has been tasked with leading the new Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Critics argue that Musk stands to benefit personally from a lot of the deregulation that he touts. Someone who is a billionaire and runs major corporations in charge of a federal project of deregulation is innately full of conflicts of interest. But given the series of vitriolic posts on his X in recent days, it seems that his portfolio includes playing the role of a hateful racist drama character rather than just a cost-cutting secretary.
In his recent posts, the tech mogul Musk has falsely accused Mr. Starmer and other Labour Party lawmakers of enabling Britain’s so-called grooming gangs. It was a series of incidents stretching back more than two decades in which organised gangs sexually exploited hundreds of vulnerable young women and girls in several towns. Though ridden with inaccuracies and patently false blame, the posts nevertheless brought back the painful memories of child sexual abuse and stirred once again the heated debate on race, immigration, and sexual exploitation of children.
The grooming gang scandal first gained national attention in 2011 when media reports exposed the systematic sexual exploitation of girls dating back to 1997. Groups of mostly Pakistani British men would target vulnerable girls to sexually exploit them and pass them around among their friends and business associates for profit. Girls are duped into believing that these men love them and are their boyfriends and once they are besotted, they put them to work in prostitution. But the police and authorities ignored the ever-growing number of complaints for fear of being called racists as many of the suspects were of Pakistani heritage. A subsequent investigation revealed that over 1400 girls, some as young as eleven had been victimised. Prosecutions in 2012 included men of Afghan, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi descent who received long-term prison sentences for their crimes.
Amidst the outcry, Musk's provocations also raise concerns about perpetuating harmful anti-Pakistani stereotypes. Indian lawmaker P Chaturvedi flayed the British prime minister’s use of the generic term, ‘Asian’ relating to child sexual abuse scandals
Compelled by a 2022 report that exposed the police failure in 2011 and 2014, the Oldham local government requested a national public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in their area. However, Ms Jesse Phillips, a Labour Law Minister, declined the request suggesting instead that the local council may commission an inquiry into it in several other towns like Rotherham and Rochdale. This is where Musk seized on her response, labelling Ms. Phillips, as “a rape genocide apologist” and a “witch” who deserved to be in prison while smearing Mr. Starmer as being complicit in the scandal.
Nazir Afzal, the chief prosecutor, from 2011-2015 himself of Pakistani descent acknowledged in 2015,” There is no getting away from the fact that Pakistani gangs are grooming vulnerable girls …although more common type of child sexual abuse nationally predominantly carried out by white British white men.” A report published by the UK Home Office in 2020 found that the majority of perpetrators of sexual offences against children were white.
As the political discourse unfolds, some British politicians, including Conservative MP and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman have starkly attributed the phenomenon of grooming gangs to British Pakistani men. Their comments have drawn criticism, yet the real racists then stepped in. The British National Party started claiming in flyers and speeches that the Muslim men were treating the white girls as ‘easy meat.’ In 2023 Suella Braverman, Conservative MP and the then-home secretary suggested in a newspaper column that, “almost all those involved in grooming gangs phenomenon are British Pakistani men.” Following the Braverman statement a letter signed by fifty researchers warned that such assertions perpetuate misinformation, racism, and division.
As the ethnicity of perpetrators in several cases still dominates the ensuing national outrage, the Labour government is struggling to keep a grip on the political narrative. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch is bent on holding the government’s feet to the fire by discussing the matter in such blatant racial terms that others would feel shy of. But many MPs agree that there’s a specific integration problem with Pakistani men. Yet the racial element of these high-profile cases became a common right-wing talking point. The trope has been weaponised by the far right including by terrorists. The white supremacist who killed 51 people in the two mosques in New Zealand in 2019 carried a gun marked with, “For Rotherham.”
Amidst the outcry, Musk's provocations also raise concerns about perpetuating harmful anti-Pakistani stereotypes. Indian lawmaker P Chaturvedi flayed the British prime minister’s use of the generic term, ‘Asian’ relating to child sexual abuse scandals. Chaturvedi wrote on X, “Repeat after me, they are not Asian Grooming Gangs but Pakistani grooming gangs.” Musk agreed with Chaturvedi by tersely responding, “True”. The Indian Media has widely covered the exchange, welcoming Musk’s stance as it adds fuel to a debate targeting a specific ethnic Muslim community. Jemima Goldsmith then waded in by posting on X that sexual abuse transcends ethnic and socio-economic boundaries, calling for reflections on gender dynamics rather than singling out specific groups. Yet in a footnote she emphasised, perhaps conceding, that the common denominator was men, “often from closed, hierarchical, gender-segregated communities,” abusing their power.
This complex issue raises broader questions as to why of all the South Asian communities; men from Pakistan are known for the wrong reasons. Musk may have his axe to grind but at the same time we, the people of Pakistan too need to reflect why on landing at a foreign airport, a man from Pakistan experiences a sudden gush of testosterone that starts itching in his lower abdomen.