Yes, it patently was 'racist' aog, but in a very narrow sense. It's rather sad if people have tried to argue that the culture of these particular individuals had absolutely no bearing on what they did or the excuses they may have made. I believe that the judge mentioned that they had picked on girls who were not of the same religion and culture as themselves. There's an irony that they themselves complained of racism against them, and more in that the man who picked up the case after the first girl had been seen by the police and CPS as unreliable, and so conviction was unlikely, and had it pursued again, was the new Chief Prosecutor for the CPS in the North West, Mr Azaz,who is himself of Pakistani descent.
The figures available show that in crimes for this particular type of grooming, in that area, men of Pakistani descent are over- represented, even allowing for the higher percentage of such men there than in the UK population. There's no getting away from that. I don't think anyone on AB questions it. But remember that the supposed cultural belief, that white girls are easy, is being used as self-justification by these sexual offenders and repeated by their friends. That's a very long way from showing that it is universally, or widely, held in their community, any more than 'honour killings' are typical or held as justified by many or all members of the communities from which the perpetrators come.
I suspect that any girl, of whatever original faith, of whatever colour, who was like these victims in background and circumstances, would be just a likely to suffer their fate .