In an exclusive interview Sayeeda Warsi, Britain’s most senior Muslim politician, calls on mosques and community leaders to condemn “a small minority” of their members with racist and sexist views.
“There is a small minority of Pakistani men who believe that white girls are fair game,” she told the Evening Standard. “And we have to be prepared to say that. You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first.”
Her comments follow the horrific Rochdale sexual grooming case, in which a gang of Pakistani men preyed on young white girls. Lady Warsi is the most senior political leader to say publicly that racist and misogynistic attitudes in sections of the community were partly responsible for what happened.
“This small minority who see women as second class citizens, and white women probably as third class citizens, are to be spoken out against,” she said. Baroness Warsi, a 41-year-old former lawyer who in 2010 became the first Muslim woman to sit in Cabinet, decided to break her silence on the controversy to encourage other leaders of the community to speak up and change attitudes. » | Joe Murphy | Friday, May 18, 2012
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