A Tory peer said there’s been a deliberate “poisoning of public discourse against Muslims” in recent years.
Sayeeda Warsi, a former Tory chair who was the first Muslim to serve as a British cabinet minister, was discussing the wave of violent unrest which has hit the UK in the last week.
Far-right extremists have been targeting mosques and asylum seekers in a wave of backlash against migration levels.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that this was caused by carefully cultivated anti-Muslim sentiment.
“This is deliberate,” Warsi said. “This has been done over a period of time, and what we’re seeing now on the streets, is the outcome of that.
“So when the government responds to this, they absolutely have to be brave enough to say, ‘where has this really come from? Who has been feeding this beast? Who has created the racist rhetoric? Who is poisoning the public discourse?’”
When posting her comments on social media, Warsi added: “The poisoning of the public discourse on migrants and refugees has been consistent and deliberate.
“An anti-Muslim agenda has been pursued by some in politics, the media and some think tanks and we have to be brave enough to call it out.
“They have created the climate that we now see play out in our towns and cities and they are as much to blame as the thugs on the street.”
Her comments come after years of the Conservatives vowing to “stop the boats” and condemning asylum seekers arriving in the UK by so-called illegal means (the English Channel).
Members of the Muslim community have been withdrawing from their normal everyday lives since the riots began.
As former Yorkshire cricketer, Azeem Rafiq, told BBC Newsnight, it has been “terrifying” and “the anxieties are very high”.
He said: ’It’s quite sickening to see graves being vandalised now, I think everyone is just being very worried for each other, just trying to make sure everyone’s in communication, make sure if someone goes out everyone knows where they are and no-one’s out alone.”
He added that “without a doubt” people were changing their normal lifestyles out of fear of the rioters.
He explained that he did not even take his son to the mosque on Friday, and did not let his wife go without him to the petrol station.
Rafiq recalled how he had to leave the country because of death threats, after he accused the Yorkshire cricket club of racism and bullying back in 2020.
“Coincidentally I’m back here while this is going on and I haven’t slept for the last few nights, I’m trying to make sure I’m safeguarding my family as much as possible,” Rafiq said.
He said he was in communication with his community, to make sure there is no reaction.
Rafiq added: “When you speak to those who have gone before us, they just say this is what it was like in the 70s and 80s.”
He pointed to the attacks on mosques, the burning of hotels housing asylum seekers and “Black and Brown people being attacked just being Black and Brown”.
He said this makes you question “whether you’re accepted”.