The first Muslim woman to sit in the British cabinet warned on Thursday that discrimination against Muslims in Britain has become socially acceptable and must be tackled. "It has seeped into our society in a way where it is acceptable around dinner to have these conversations where anti-Muslim hatred and bigotry is quite openly discussed," minister without portfolio Sayeeda Warsi told the BBC.
Warsi, a member of the unelected House of Lords and co-chair of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, will make her argument in a speech later Thursday at the University of Leicester. According to extracts in the Daily Telegraph, Warsi, who is of Pakistani origin, will blame the media for fuelling misunderstanding with labels such as "moderate" or "extremist".
Warsi will also call on Muslim communities to speak up more against Islamic extremism, an issue which has preoccupied governments here since four home-grown suicide bombers attacked London in 2005, killing 52 people. In the latest sign of the sensitivities of the subject, Britain refused entry Wednesday to highly controversial US pastor Terry Jones. In her speech, Warsi will say that those engaged in terrorism must face the law but also "face social rejection and alienation across society, and their acts must not be used as an opportunity to tar all Muslims."
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