and in some cultures religion is a very strong factor
And in others it isn't. A lot depends how rural and conservative a culture is.
There is no evidence that the men involved were at all religious.
The ultra-conservative Deobandi sect control most of the sunni mosques
Not in Rotherham they don't. In fact some of us who were there at the time )or within 10 miles, anyway) remember quite a lot of trouble about that in the town back in the 70s.
mosques in Iraq,...would be way more moderate
Very full on there, if anything with the men having a very conservative attitude to women. BTW, I didn't 'live' there.
This is a distraction from the real issue though, trying to focus on the individuals and families who are being used as pawns. As you know, this is a far broader issue than the religious observance (or lack thereof) of the people brought to the border by Putin's maskirovka.