Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative former Cabinet minister, has demanded that politicians 'stop engaging with the Muslim community through the prism of terrorism and extremism' and warned against 'a policy of disengagement' which is 'fundamentally wrong'.
The comments from Baroness Warsi, who is a Muslim, came as she spoke about her new book The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain to a packed audience of hundreds of Christians at the Greenbelt festival in Northamptonshire last night.
The life peer, who was appointed to the House of Lords at the age of 36 by the then prime minister David Cameron in 2007, also repeatedly condemned the populism of Donald Trump, elements of the tabloid press and Nigel Farage during an impassioned hour-long session in which she read extracts from her book.
Warsi, who was introduced on stage by Christian Today's Andy Walton, opened up about her faith, saying that she has 'never hit the prayer mat' as much as over this summer after her father suffered a stroke seven months ago. She also revealed that as a moderate Muslim, she features on the ISIS 'kill list'.
And she described her 'journey' over the issue of homosexuality, declaring: 'I learned my homophobia in the religion of the Conservative party.'
To laughter from those gathered at this liberal-leaning festival, Warsi added: 'It's not easy being a Tory at Greenbelt'.
The Baroness outlined how she had named the book The Enemy Within after Tory criticism of her to that effect in 2013 after the murder of Brigadier Lee Rigby on the streets of London, and a 'rightwing journalist' asked: 'How can we deal with this issue of terrorism when we have Sayeeda Warsi around the Cabinet table?'
Warsi, who served as minister without portfolio and then in the Foreign Office and resigned over policy towards Gaza in 2014, reflected last night: 'It was the worst form of insult because what it said was "We don't trust you; you don't belong."...Using it as the title was the best way of owning it.'
As a Muslim, she said, 'I still feel that every day I'm having to sit a loyalty test.'
Her internal Tory critics had been on the attack for years by the time the inspiration for the book's title came in 2013, however.
Throughout her time in Cabinet, Warsi faced a lengthy battle with neo-conservative ministers, especially Michael Gove as well as George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt, who were allies of the right-wing media proprietor Rupert Murdoch.
And even in 2007, after she was first appointed to the shadow cabinet, the influential 'ConservativeHome' website ran a statement by the Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom saying that Warsi's presence at the top of the party ranks sends 'the wrong signal at a time when Britain is fighting a global war against Islamic terrorism and extremism. Mrs Warsi has been a fierce critic of British anti-terror policy, stating that anti-terrorism legislation had turned Britain into a "police state".'
In fact, though she was critical of the counter-terrorism 'Prevent' strategy last night, saying that it 'was always supposed to be an engaged community-led battle of ideas' and that has failed to be that, she added that ultimately and contrary to 'myths', she 'supported' the controversial strategy.
The child of Pakistani immigrants, Warsi said of contemporary Britain: 'I know that there is nowhere else in this world that I could call home...But I also know that Britain could be better.'
Her book outlines how Muslims are the new 'outsiders' as Jews and Catholics and even homosexuals have been in the past.
But she is not afraid to challenge the Muslim community. The solution, she said, 'is to press the restart button' and tackle issues such as misogyny, homophobia and child sexual exploitation. 'I genuinely sense a need for change' within the community which needs to show it is 'fit for purpose,' she said.
Nonetheless, Warsi revealed that she has not received a single word of condemnation over her book from any imam or leading Muslim.
Warsi was keen to emphasise one of the key themes of her book, which is that Britain's Muslims are not a 'monolithic block'.
She hit out at the Daily Mail for portraying Muslims as 'weird aliens,' adding that Muslims 'are not what the Daily Mail would like you to believe [them to be]'.
On Trump, Warsi said that in February last year when she first submitted a draft of her book, her editor felt she needed to 'tone down' some of the content. But then in November 2016 after Trump's victory in the presidential election, 'the draft seemed timid because the world had gone mad'.
Referring to the clashes earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, she continued: 'Did we ever think we would end up with a man in the White House who thought fascists and anti-fascists were equally to blame?...Where evidence is just an inconvenience, where facts just got in the way of a good headline?'
In the book, she writes that 'the fog of fascism is coming from east and west' and that this has been vindicated by Charlottesville. 'We've all got a vested interest in saying fascists are fascists,' she said.
In the wide-ranging discussion, Warsi also reflected on the resignation in June as Liberal Democrat leader of Tim Farron, describing his treatment as an evenagelical Christian as 'appalling' and asking, as she does in the book: 'Does Britain now have a problem with religion?'
Warsi said that she has had to live with being on the ISIS 'kill list' for about a year and a half, adding: 'No amount of criticism from the likes of Nigel Farage and the Daily Mail could bring my religion into disrepute like ISIS do.'
