YouSaid · the spoken record

Sayeeda Warsi

lines on the record: 50
first: 2023-10-26
most recent: 2023-10-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think they're pretty much in the same space. You see, the thinking with Israel has always been that even when we're dealing with people like Netanyahu, we hold our nose and we deal with him because as long as we keep him on site, we will have some influence in the way that he manages these situations. But my experience over the years, both from within government and outside, is that we never have any influence over him, that effectively he has us jumping to his tunes. And that's why in the end, when thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Israel to say he's not good for Israel and actually took to the streets here in London when he came for his official visit, when they were saying to the Prime Minister, he's not good for Israel. They were right. Those Israelis were right. So we should always stand with Israelis, but we should not be standing with an Israeli government.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For a joint Palestinian voice, so he could say there was nobody to negotiate with. And if you look at the coalition agreement that Netanyahu signed when he got into bed with these far-right extremists, he talks very clearly that all the land between the river and the sea is all of Israel. So he denies the right of Palestine to exist as a state as part of his basic politics and their coalition agreement. This is why I have a worry that if you are a genuine friend of Israel, you do not support those aspects of Israeli politics that in the end are committing deep self-harm to the state of Israel.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, one of the most disturbing quotes that I've read from all the reading that I've done over the recent years is one from March 2019 when Netanyahu told his liquid colleagues, and this is a quote, anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank. He needed Hamas to succeed to ensure that there wasn't the case.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think foreign policy was central to every conversation we had around the dinner table from about the age of five. My dad's a great storyteller. We knew everything about partition post-partition, the 71 war, you know, Sykes Pico, like everything. We were taught this. It was just an integral part. And Israel and Palestine was just an integral part of that conversation. And, you know, the Oslo cause were within our living memory when I was a young lawyer. And then, of course, it framed my whole politics because I gave up one of the best jobs in the world because of what happened in Gaza.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The right with the most extreme right wing politicians like Smotrich and Bengavi are now at the heart of Israeli politics.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And an Israel built those settlements knowing that it was illegal and it was an occupied territory and was continuously told by the international community not to do so. So the two options are, look, Israel needs the two-state solution more than the Palestinians do. And the reason why I say that is because the alternative to a two-state solution is a one-state solution with equal rights for all people who make up that one state, which would effectively make it a majority Palestinian state. And therefore, I cannot understand at a time when there was peace between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors practically, the Abraham Accords basically showed a clear recognition for the state of Israel amongst the Arab world, at least the ones that mattered. Why during that period when the effectively it was peacetimes was when Israeli settlements were expanded at a rate we had never seen before. And over and over again we have seen Israeli politics move further and further.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because for two states to exist, they both have to be functional and they have to have enough land mass to operate as a state. And the way in which the illegal settlement building has expanded over the West Bank, which is the occupied territories, means that it is almost impossible for a physical Palestinian state to exist unless we went back to the 67 borders and the political will in Israel to go back to those 67 borders is zero. And therefore, when I argue this with my colleagues and I say, I would stand up and take issue with anybody who said that the right of Israel to exist, it shouldn't exist. You know, we question that and we call it out for what it is. But what about those people who deny the right of Palestine to exist by not questioning the reality on the ground, which basically means de facto we are denying the right of Palestine to exist as a state?”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I call it the fig leaf that justifies our inaction. You know, I've said that on numerous occasions. I feel that the opportunity for a two-state solution is closing or has closed unless we're prepared to take that initiative now.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think war crimes are not adjudicated upon by the Jordanian king or the British Prime Minister. War crimes are adjudicated upon by the International Criminal Court. It's why we've set it up. It's why we fund it. In the past we've been one of its biggest funders. So the question I ask is why don't we allow the Palestinians and the Israelis to go before the International Criminal Court? If we want to operate in a world where there is a rules-based system, then why don't we allow that rules-based system to take its natural course? Because what is the hope that where if we genuinely believe in a two-state solution, what are we doing to bring that two-state solution about?”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Commitment to the two states, both sides of the argument, you know, international accountability. There was a moment where we were talking about a resolution before the Human Rights Council, which would have held both Israel and Palestinians to account for any war crimes that may have been committed. And we abstained. You know, when we start abstaining on international accountability, we get ourselves into some really murky territory and there was also no commitment to rebuild Gaza post the conflict. And I seriously thought about it long and hard. You know, a working class girl from Jewsbury doesn't wake up one day and find herself at the cabinet table. This was one of the best jobs in the world and I was serving my country. But I also could not put my name to things which fundamentally were against what I think a British interest and were fundamentally against my own conscience.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“2014 Gaza conflict where I stood down. And the reason I stood down at that time was because one, I was appalled at the fact that I was stated policy was not being followed, that our values that we say were part of our foreign policy were not being followed.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The failure of the Oslo Codes was a big part of that. I think the assassination of Zach Rabin and the consequences that flowed from that, there really hasn't been a serious peace deal on the table since then. And what people forget is that Rabin, who was probably one of, I mean, he got a Nobel Peace Prize alongside Yasser Arafat two years after those Oslo courts, he was assassinated by a far-right Israeli extremist because he didn't want those Oslo accords. There was a section of Israeli politics and society that didn't want those accords to succeed. But since then, there has been no serious attempt other than a small attempt, I think, in 2016 by John Kerry to have hope. Therefore, I think we disengaged, the UK disengaged, the United States disengaged. And the only time we re-engage is when there is a terrible, tragic act of violence, as we've seen this month. And then after that, when everything calms down and we saw this in the...”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Douglas Murray. And it was that blunt and brutal. That is having my loyalty question. That is suggesting that somehow I am part of the problem at the heart of government. And articles were running newspapers effectively accusing me of entryism. You know, this was kind of that hunting McCarthyistic approach of saying, well, who is she? Where does she come from? Who are her friends? What is she trying to do? And yes, I did feel like I was, you know, during my time in government, it was difficult. But I think it's not so much about how I feel personally. It's the fact that I hear from young Muslims who feel like they're being silenced, who feel like they can't be themselves, who feel fearful, who are looking for exit routes. And that really saddens me.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When I was in cabinet and I used to sit on the National Security Council, we had a terrorist attack on the streets of London, Drummerley Rigby, was killed. And I was part of the task force that put together a response to that terrorist attack. And at the time, somebody who actually, the Cameron government considered to be beyond the pale, and this individual who's recently Sue of Bravaman stood at the dispatch box and said he was somebody who had mainstream views, which shows how far our party has moved, said our paraphrase, how can we deal with the war on terror when we have her Baroness Varsi the enemy at the table?”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think I was hurt, Alistair, more than angry because, as I said in the speech, both my grandfather served in the British Indian Army. Our relationship with Britain goes back long before they came to these shores. They were prepared to give their blood and lives for fighting against Hitler's armies and fighting fascism. And, you know, I now have a child back in the armed forces in uniform. I have a father who broke his back in the mills building his life and building British industries after the Second World War. And I served my country at the Cabinet table. And I'm tired of being put in a place where I'm othered. I'm tired of being seen as part of a community, which is having its loyalty questioned.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Awful stuff about Muslims being part of some sort of blood, yeah, blood cult. And, you know, and thankfully, when I challenged it and I spoke to friends within the Jewish community, they managed to get these things taken down. These kind of overt attacks on Jewish communities by Muslim communities and overt attacks by Jewish communities upon Muslim communities, it's going to stop. And we've got to stop having this kind of sense of us and them, which is why one of the things I'm trying to put together this week is get the same heads on both sides together and say we have to do this in a joint way.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's absolutely appalling. No, of course you can't. Why should we allow that on our streets? And why should any Jewish person in this country feel threatened or scared or feel like there's no future for their children? I mean, the whole point of my speech last week was I failed to accept this position that my grandchildren or their children will not call this place their home. And I've spoken to Jewish friends where I've said to them, where do you think your grandkids will be? And they've said things like New York. And they've said, where do you think your grandkids will be? And I said, I don't know, Dubai. And it can be tragic that successful British Jewish communities and successful British Muslim communities are making plan B's. And so until we understand the humanity and the fear of the other and until we work together rather than against each other, I mean, one of the things that's really disturbed me this week, and I've called it out on Twitter, is some of the stuff that was written by the editor of the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News really all.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Loss and despair and anxiety that they must be feeling right now in the middle of this attack is something that you can only comprehend when you understand the humanity of them as people and as individuals within that community. And, you know, for this to succeed, we have to find a way in which we can understand that humanity and we can also understand the humanity of the other communities that make up Britain. You know, what's really disturbed me, and I've called this out, there were two marches that went on this Saturday. One was the pro-Palestinian march and then the other one was one was the kind of main march and one was this march outside the Egyptian embassies and the Tunisian embassies. And this group, Hizbahiri, is a group that was protesting outside Muslim embassies that's attacked British Muslims for most of their lives.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is a real thing, and it's for me, and Alice and I were talking about this earlier when I was brought up as a Muslim, before I could love Muhammad and his teachings, I learned to love Jesus and his teachings and Moses and his teachings. You cannot be a Muslim in my world unless you understand and love the teachings of the people who came before him. And there's no way that I can be brought up loving Jesus and Moses and not loving the followers of Jesus and Moses, those great faiths. And for me, I've always referred to the Jewish community as my cousins. And when I've spoken to members of the British Jewish community and particularly those whose families have been kidnapped by the recent terrorist attack by Hamas, you know, we held each other in parliament and cried because the sense of”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, many years ago I sat down with a very senior member of the British Jewish community and in fact I was speaking to him earlier today and I said to him that we need to have a space where British Muslims and British Jews can have a conversation and it needs to be an honest open conversation because I deeply worry about the fact that you are a small community. You're not a growing community, but you are a powerful and influential community in all aspects of our public life. And when I look at the British Muslim community, it is not particularly powerful or influential, but it is a growing community. And we need to find a way in which we can talk openly about anti-Semitism within Muslim communities and Islamophobia within Jewish communities. In fact, I did a speech on it in which I talked quite frankly about these aspects of our communities.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you believe in a landscape? She believes in business. I believe in a small state and I believe in the state getting out of your way and I believe in the state giving you the freedom to be able to become the best possible version of yourself. And I believe in hard work. I just felt like the Labour Party definitely saw me as a bit of a kind of a victim community in the way that the Conservatives didn't.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I see what you see. Oh, this homie is an equal. With labor, it was very patriarchal. It felt very inauthentic. And it just didn't feel like a comfortable place. What are the earliest politicians who I absolutely love was Neil and Glynnis Kinnock? And he always said to me, we missed the boat because something just didn't feel right for me there.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think because I fundamentally believe in a small state and a bigger society, I think the state should not interfere in people's lives. I believe that the state should be a safety net of last resort, that you should help and incentivize people to stand on their feet, on their own two feet in the way that you can hard work, aspiration, changing your life through education. I would say, you know, we're the only religion whose profit was a businessman, right? There is everything about the way I was bought up conservatively, you know, socially conservative whilst growing up, importance of family, those family ties and community. I think everything that I grew up with when I started looking at labor, I thought, well, this doesn't really represent me. And what I found interestingly, you know, in the early days was that my connections and my kind of meetings with labor people really early on felt really patronizing. Because in the Conservative Party, right, either they were racist and I thought, oh,”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. Listen, he believed in a 2.5% rate of tax, Zakar. You tell me which socialist party is going to give you a 2.5 rate of tax. And then he incentivized you through good deeds to give him many other ways. He believed in Jesus was a socialist. No, no, you said that.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We had this conversation, you know. Alice and I were having this conversation about whether Jesus was a socialist. And I said, well, Muhammad was definitely a conservative. And I said, were he absolutely?”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because I want us to come back to the center ground, Rory. You know, we have to stay and fight. Remember the cabinet that I sat around the table with? Ken Clark, Dominic Greeve, Justin Greening, William Hague, David Willetts, these people were, even when you disagreed, were serious figures who you could have genuine conversation with. And I fail to accept that that party has gone and I fail to accept that that party can't exist again. And that's why I will continue to hold the line, but I will continue to hold the party's feet to the fire.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I won't answer a hypothetical question, and you now expect your cabinet minister to keep saying that. But I think for me what disturbs means, often people say to me, you know, how is it that you've fallen out of love with the Conservative Party? And I say, well, because the Conservative Party has fallen out of love with democracy and the rule of law. And when you get to a point where your cabinet colleagues start behaving in ways”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't have a vote at the general election, which makes it easier, and I don't have to deal with that question unlike you would advise every cabinet minister to say when you're a communications director, I don't answer hypothetical questions. But the point is going to end.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have even more time for his wife, Cherie, but actually Tony became quite enamored with what was coming out of the US, this kind of odd neoconservative thinking. He became really ideological. And I think he started what I now believe is this rot which we're seeing today.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've heard about If you go back to the New Labor Years, the policy of disengagement, and I'll explain what this policy is, basically, New Labour decided that you had to be a certain kind of Muslim to be engaged with, that you had to effectively acquiesce. You had to say what we wanted to hear. And they created these non-representative, fictitious groups. One of them was called Aquillian Foundation, one of them called the Sufi Muslim Council. They thought this was the answer to Muslim engagement. Both of them are now defunct, right? Yeah, they existed. Both of them were run by people who are now incredibly interesting and believe in the fact that Trump won the last election and conspiracy theories about COVID. But anyway, at the time, Tony clearly thought these were trusted people to which he used to engage with the British Muslim community. And however much we screamed about it at the time and said to New Labour, no, this is not the way to do it. It was patronizing, it was not real, it was not authentic. And I think there was a lack of disrespect. You know, I have a lot of time for Tony Blair.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think she's unfit for office, and I think that the rhetoric, I mean, only recently when she talked about, you know, so-called Pakistani grooming gangs, which she then had to retract from because the statement she'd made turned out to be false, even based upon the Home Office's own assessment. And, you know, newspapers had to correct their records off the back of it. I just think language is really important. If you genuinely care about your country and you genuinely want to create a situation where, you know, the majority of people in that country feel like they belong and they matter. And those are really important words to belong and to matter, then you don't constantly create divisions and make people feel like outsiders.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On that one, I wasn't going to try and just fit in and fall into line, that actually my country and making my country better mattered. And if that meant I upset sections of my party, then so be it.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They do, but then change never happens if we all had accepted the status quo because we'd still have slavery, wouldn't we? And so you have to be a disruptor and you have to challenge the status quo for change to happen. And what you can't do is you can't bring all your difference and your expertise to the table and then just reinforce the status quo. And I used to say this to David all the time, to say, there's no point you giving me a seat around the cabinet table if you don't want me to bring my authentic self to the table. You know, I'm not going to be your nodding dog brown-eyed girl because that's not what I signed up for. Anyway, why would anybody join the Godforsaken world of politics if it wasn't to make a difference if all you want is a job or you just want a bit of attention? There are better ways to get it than giving up your life and being scrutinized in the way that you are and being vilified as we often are as politicians, you know, you've got to be there to make a difference. So I think I made a decision very early on.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She wouldn't read the citations, but what I wanted her was when she was reading the book and thinking, surely that can't be true for there to be some evidence where she could look back and think, oh, okay, so it is. You know, what I found really disturbing is that we're in a stage of politics where almost evidence and fact doesn't seem to matter anymore. This isn't just a problem for the things that I care about. It matters in so many other areas.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, the book that I wrote was written with Doris in Devon in mind because, you know, I wanted to write this for somebody who probably hadn't come across many ethnic minority communities, probably didn't really know much about Islam or Muslims, probably read the Daily Mail. And therefore, I wanted to make sure that the book was really well evidenced. There are pages and pages and pages of citations. I got obsessed about citations.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I worry that that is where we are going, and I wanted to sound the siren and I wanted to stop and make people think about the consequences of the way in which we are dealing with this matter. We have to change course. And to do that, I have to stop people in their tracks. If I stopped you in your tracks, Alice, it worked.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because if we think that diversity of thought is based upon the colour of your skin, we've got it horribly wrong. And I'm not just saying this because Rory's that, you know, Rory's a white man, but probably has more understanding of large parts of the world, including the Muslim world, than many of my colleagues in government who would profess to be Muslim. So I don't think that this is an issue about this is an issue about understanding and it's about an issue of the rule of law and it's an issue about equality and it's about looking at your country and thinking which are the ways in which I can make policy where in the long term I create a sense of ease. The anxiety and the fallout of the Shemima Bagan case has been horrific.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Version of citizenship. I mean, you know, my children and your children could commit the same crime and my children could have their citizenship stripped because their great-grandfather left a country somewhere, a country that they may never know, may never have visited, have never taken up citizenship of. But because there is a rare potential probability or a possibility that they may be entitled to a second citizenship.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know there was this really fascinating moment, which is now in the public domain, and actually, I write about in my book where when we were talking about my dresses, somebody said, you know, if we can't do them for extremism, we can always do them for health and safety. There's always the Alcapone method. And that disturbs me deeply because it's about saying we need to kind of shut down this space. What I was saying in my lecture last week was this silencing, stigmatizing and stereotyping of British Muslims has deeply disturbed me over a period of now, you know, 15 years where tiny, tiny little changes were made, where we end up now in a situation where the government doesn't engage with the vast majority of British Muslim communities. It doesn't engage with any group which is considered to be a representative or a body on behalf of Muslim communities. We can't have a conversation about issues around extremism. We now have a second class.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a huge amount of time for David and it's very difficult not to like David and anybody who's worked with him will understand that but you know one of the things I joke with him all the time is I genuinely believe that Michael Goev radicalized David Cameron and took him down a path where he made him believe in ideas which had no evidential basis. Look, I'm a lawyer first and foremost and I would say you know show me the evidence. I'm happy to be convinced. But you can't just make things up. I remember a conversation in government where we were talking about madrasas and mosques and halfway through this conversation. I remember telling to my colleagues and saying, have any of you ever been to a madrasa? Have any of you ever been to, you're having this conversation from such an ill-informed perspective?”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were taking over schools. So if you take my generation who basically said to migrant communities, you have to play your part. You have to be part of the school system. You have to be part of the local charitable space. So many people, when they saw that their schools were failing, became governors. And the allegation was that these governors were all linked and they were taking over these schools and they were putting in place a radicalized idea and therefore radicalizing the children. And yet interestingly, most of these schools were doing incredibly well academically. So whatever the schools were doing was working from an educational perspective, but this Trojan horse letter then triggered this inquiry.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think that is an example of it, but I'll give you an example of what we saw in government, Trojan horse, the Trojan horse scandal, this so-called scandal of in Birmingham, where effectively we felt that extremists had taken over schools and they were radicalizing the kids there. And a huge inquiry was started off the back of a letter, which subsequently turned out to be a complete hoax and was found to be bogus. And without questioning any of this, this letter, which interestingly had the same title as a chapter in one of Michael's book, Drojan Os. And then suddenly off the back of this letter, we went into these schools, we destroyed lots of lives. These children still live with the stigma of what happened. We sacked teachers.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have people who dress up as patriots, but they are arsonists, and they use language and policy which sets our country alight, and they divide us through this divisive culture wars.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It depends on how you define it. If multiculturalism is people from different backgrounds, different religions, different races working together, well, look across the country, look at interfaith marriages, look at interracial marriages, look at interracial and interfaith business relationships, look at the way in which we get along. You know, when we go out for a walk and, you know, we talk to people of all backgrounds, people out walking their dogs. The way in which people rub along works incredibly well better. So multiculturalism has worked and is working. But there are definitely people in politics now and in the editorial newsrooms and in think tanks who don't want it to succeed. And that's why we've got to push back on it. I mean, the phrase that I've used consistently is that”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did, but you almost accepted it as the way things were. So being chased after school, I mean, look, it's a phrase which people find offensive, but it was a phrase that was used, Packy Back. know packy bashing was easier to deal with you know you knew who you were dealing with it was in front of your face it was violent it was immediate and it was clear what i find much more difficult is the kind of racism that i face now the stuff that i talked about over a decade ago when i said islamophobia has passed the dinner table test i call it respectable racism the stuff that you find in think tanks and editorial newsrooms and conversations in politics which is far more pernicious and difficult to deal with”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Somebody's heart, you'll use the language that feels most familiar to them, and after that, I didn't get any difficult questions from the journalists. It was like, right, done.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we didn't speak a word of English when we went to school, so we learned English when we got to school. So I think we must have been about four or five years old. And before that, it was Urdu and Punjabi and Gujarati and all these other languages that were being spoken around us. And my parents tried really hard to make sure that we kept those languages obsessively. I mean, mom even bought us books and we had to do Urdu classes at home. And I only saw the value of them interestingly when I was in cabinet and I did my first big visit to Pakistan. And I remember being in Islamabad and there was a press conference between myself and the Pakistani foreign minister. And he started off and he gave his kind of spiel in English. And then the journalists turned to me and I did my whole thing in Urdu. And he said to this day, you know, Shah Mahmoud Garish, he said, you didn't need to embarrass me like that. But the phrase that I used at the time was, you know, if you want to speak to somebody's head, you know, you can use any language. But if you want to speak to”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think there was a clear sense that our parents and our grandfathers came over as workers. They came to improve their lives, to make a life for their family. But they were really aspirational. And the one thing they wanted for the next generation, all of us, myself, you know, Sagitt, all born in the UK, they wanted us to have an education. We were going to be the first generation to go to university. And they viewed the university as something that was really quite achievable and was a bare minimum. And for us, it was particularly unusual because we were girls. So at a time when there was still a conversation going on in some of these conservative communities about whether or not girls should be going to university, the one thing that my mom and dad decided, my mom particularly very early on was that we were all going to go to university. And again, a very odd reason for that. Her view was that, you know, you don't have any brothers. There isn't going to be anybody there to pick up the pieces if something goes wrong. So you better be strong.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Time that an all-female family, I'm sure, there were five of us because I'm sure my mum and dad kept trying for a boy. And an all-female family was really because they'd failed and they hadn't produced this male heir”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So 1971, second of five girls born to Pakistani immigrants who came over in the 60s following on from my grandfather who came in 1958. And at the time I was born, dad was working in the ragmills. Mum was a housewife. And my mum said, things started looking up because dad got a job as a bus conductor. So he was going up in the world. And I think probably being born into an all-female family with a Muslim faith, working class background, Yorkshire town, there were so many different influences very early on. But I think what we knew, because I think we were five girls very early on, was that we had something to prove. I just remember this statement from a mum consistently, you've got to be better than the boys. You've got to be better than the boys. And I think there was a sense certainly culturally at that.”
2023-10-26 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 42. Sayeeda Warsi: Britain and the Muslim World · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source