Westminster attacker was a 'violent Christian before he was a violent Muslim'

The Westminster attacker was a 'violent Christian before he was a violent Muslim', said ex-faith minister and Tory peer Sayeeda Warsi.

In a comment that could have been referencing a more complex argument made by the conservative Christian blogger Archbishop Cranmer, the former co-chair of the Conservative Party said it was wrong to only focus on Islam when countering terror.

She told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that terror research showed there can be between 15 to 28 tell-tale signs of people who were potential threats.

Criticising the government's counter-extremism programme Prevent, she said: 'There has been a narrative that says Muslim people know who these people are.

'And not only do they know them but they're condoning them and sheltering them.

'I think what we've seen in the terrorist attack last week is it's incredibly difficult (to predict).

'This is a man who was born in a Christian home, born in a fairly comfortable home, seemed to be living a fairly good lifestyle, was popular.

'He then got involved in criminality and didn't convert to Islam until later on in life.

'So he was a violent Christian long before he was a violent Muslim.

'I'm not sure any of the people who were growing up with him, indeed his own family, would have known that he would go on to commit such an extremist act.'

She said the process of being radicalised into a violent Jihadi wasn't as simple as the government made out.

'My argument has consistently been that the government has been obsessively focused on just one – which we refer to as Islamist ideology.'

But asked why it seemed violent men converted to Islam and not evangelical Christianity or Hinduism she said there were people around the world who were born-again Christians or Buddhists who were also committed to violent extremism.

'People always want to find a cause,' she said.

'Nobody's going to say I am an extremist or a terrorist, I just want to commit violent acts, because that's the kind of violent man I am, which clearly Khalid Masood was.

'They want to try and find an air of respectability as justification for it.

'If you go back to the GBH he was convicted of in early life there's some suggestion that the argument he presented to court was that he had been racially abused.

'His violent act was based upon his racial identity.

'People will always find a grievance.'