Baroness Warsi Claims the Government is Waging a ‘Cold War’ Against British Muslims

Former government minister Baroness Warsi said British Muslims are living in “fear” of the new government crack down on extremism, and has claimed the new policy could lead to more radicalisation.

Speaking to the Independent, Warsi said the coming of new laws to crack down on non-violent extremism should be applied to all communities in Britain, rather than just Muslims. She said: “The test will be whether this is a genuine attempt to deal with extremism in all its forms, as opposed to the current perception that it is a Cold War against British Muslims”.

Warsi, who was made a Conservative peer in 2007 following an unsuccessful election attempt, has said that to help fight extremism British people must think of Muslims as “us”, rather than “them”. In a piece for ConservativeHome, the former Minister of State for Faith and Communities said British values should be “inclusive, not exclusive” and said regarding extremism, the government should move on from the ‘Prevent’ programme, and instead seek to ‘Promote’.

“As a British Muslim woman who has faced her fair share of misogyny and bigotry from both Muslim communities and others, these issues, for me, are not just issues of policy – they’re about principle; and it’s personal.”

Warsi’s involvement in bringing Muslims to government since her unceremonious departure from the cabinet last year over her strong opinions on Israel, has proven somewhat controversial. Breitbart London has previously reported how the Baroness has used her positions to give access to Muslims with extremist views. In April, Breitbart London reported a ‘Muslim Manifesto’ launched by a known Islamist in Parliament was warmly endorsed by Baroness Warsi who said the “Muslim Manifesto is something you can take to your election candidates”.

Launching the event was Azad Ali, who was suspended from his civil service post in 2008 for writing: “If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier’s uniform inside Iraq I would kill him because that is my obligation. If I found the same soldier in Jordan I wouldn’t touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier, here he is not. I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad”.

Remarking on a libel case he brought and lost over the comments, a Judge later said of Ali that he suffers from an “absence of reality”.