Prospect Podcast

Sayeeda Warsi on the Tories and why ‘Muslims don’t matter’

October 09, 2024
Image: Keith Morris / Hay Ffotos / Alamy Stock Photo
Image: Keith Morris / Hay Ffotos / Alamy Stock Photo

Baroness Warsi, former Conservative cabinet minister and lawyer, joins Ellen and Alona to talk about her new book Muslims Don’t Matter, about “the silencing, stereotyping and stigmatising of Muslims by the British press and political parties.”

Politicians, media outlets, think tanks and even the entertainment industry have poisoned public discourse about Muslims, culminating in this summer’s riots. She describes how Islamophobia, which she calls “Britain's bigotry blind spot”, not only passes the “dinner table test”, but has been enacted into policy.

In a moving conversation about her journey in the public eye, she talks about her lifelong effort to challenge racism and why she’s finally resigned the whip.

Muslims Don’t Matter is out now: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/sayeeda-warsi/muslims-dont-matter/9780349136486/

Her podcast with David Baddiel ‘A Muslim and a Jew go there’ is available to stream: https://shows.acast.com/a-muslim-a-jew-go-there