‘We must fight Muslim hatred’

THE first Muslim woman to sit in the British cabinet warned 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, was to make her argument in a speech late last night at the University of Leicester.

According to extracts in the Daily Telegraph, Warsi, who is of Pakistani origin, blamed the media for fuelling misunderstanding with labels such as “moderate” or “extremist”. Warsi was to call on Muslims to speak up against extremism.