"PREJUDICE AGAINST MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN IS AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

"Prejudice against Muslims in Britain is at an all-time high"

The chairman of the Conservative Party has said prejudice against Muslims in Britain is at an all-time high and has become socially acceptable.

Speaking to the Mercury, Baroness Warsi defended her controversial comments on Islamophobia, the fear of Islam, which were released yesterday.

The contents of a speech, made at Leicester University last night, had been trailed to the media ahead of the event, sparking a debate on Islam in Britain.

In the first major comments on religion by a member of David Cameron's Government, she said Islamophobia was seen by many as normal, and said describing Muslims as either "moderate" or "extremist" fosters growing prejudice.

In our interview, she revealed how she had been the target of racist e-mails since entering the House of Lords in 2007, including receiving one just minutes earlier which read: "Instead of bleating like some Halal lamb being led to slaughter, how about ending the knee-bending to Islam at every opportunity."

She said: "Anti-Islamic sentiment is the last socially acceptable form of bigotry in Britain, and that e-mail is a typical example of the kind of behaviour I face.

"There's a rising level of anti-Islamic hatred in this country. When I get that kind of e-mail, that's being directed at me as a person whose family has a tradition of half a century in Britain."

Lady Warsi, who is the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, said she stood by every word of her speech.

"When you're open and honest about problems people know exist then people will make headlines out of it.

"I don't regret any of it."

She said discrimination against Muslims was more acceptable in Britain than ever before, and urged people to be more careful about what they said about the religion.

"People need to take stock of what they're saying and ask, 'if my next door neighbour could hear what I was saying, would they find it acceptable? Would it be okay for me to say these things about Muslims if they were Jewish or black?'"

She said Muslim communities had to organise themselves in the way Jewish communities had in the past, to tackle anti-semitism.

She said: "You can't draw exact examples between Muslim society in Britain today and the Jewish communities of decades gone by, but people used to say that anti-semitism was not really an issue.

"It was only when the British Jewish community started working with the police, evidence was logged, gathering information. Until that point people didn't acknowledge there was a problem. British Muslims need to do the same.

"We need to get beyond asking whether it is happening or whether it is an issue, because it is.

"This isn't a fight to the bottom for who is the biggest victim.

"The reason you have to be careful about your language is because of the potential consequences. We're on a journey as a country. Words can become unacceptable over time.

"Saying someone is moderate or extreme Muslim, you decide whether someone is good or bad based on their religion.

"If someone goes out and starts shouting 'death to Britain' and comes out with loads of crazy statements and wants to do us harm then they are criminals.

"They've become detached from their religion to such an extent that they should be defined by their criminality rather than their beliefs."

Asked whether she still faces regular discrimination, she said: "On the basis of my race? Less so. On the basis of my religion? More so."

Abdulkarim Gheewala, president of the Islamic Education Trust in Leicester, said: "Baroness Warsi's comments are timely and most welcome. No one should be allowed to justify the demonisation of Muslims as a whole, in the name of freedom of expression. We congratulate her for her honest comments."

Read the full speech given by Baroness Warsi at the University of Leicester.