Laurie and Kym attended The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain with Sayeeda Warsi on Tuesday 4 April at the Barbican Centre in London.
Laurie Roxby, 25, is a copywriter from Bow, east London.
I decided to attend this event because I’m very interested in social politics and I wanted to engage in a perspective that differs from my own. I took my mum - I had promised I’d take her to a Guardian Live event, and given our mutual interest in politics, this one seemed apt.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was the UK’s first Muslim cabinet minister; her book The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain, has recently been published. In it she considers how British attitudes and policy towards Islam have changed. Neither my mum nor I have views that align with those of Warsi, and we’re not Muslims, so we were keen to hear her thoughts.
Anushka hosted the event in such a way that input from the audience felt natural and encouraged. Sayeeda was bringing her views as a British Muslim from a Tory standpoint, but attendees had a diverse range of views - they included a group of students from a university in south Asia, readers from across the UK, younger and older people from a range of backgrounds … It made for some great debate which also managed to stay respectful and good-natured on both sides.
Warsi said that her experience growing up in 70s Yorkshire hadn’t made her feel like an outsider. Some members of the audience questioned whether her experience matched that of other British Muslims, a large percentage of whom aren’t treated like ‘everybody else’, regardless of whether they feel that way themselves. The fact that Warsi doesn’t feel this way doesn’t make the subject a non-issue for others.
It doesn’t seem that there are enough social initiatives – at a governmental and community level (i.e. with sufficent funding, public backing, etc) — that are built to address ethnic marginalisation in a way that isn’t forced or patronising, and I think some people in the room felt that the Tories should take the lion’s share of the blame regarding this. It would have been good to have heard a more in-depth discussion about the party’s often-divisive social policies and perhaps get some insight on the direction they’re going.
That said, it’s great that these discussions are taking place, and facilitated by publications like the Guardian. It’s exactly this kind of insight and engagement that made me become a member.
Kym Hamer, 47, is a marketing director originally from Australia who lives in Finchley, north London.
I went to this event not knowing a huge amount about Sayeeda Warsi, other than a little of her political career, but in lots of ways this made the evening’s conversation even more fascinating. During Anushka’s introduction, I learnt that Warsi was a successful lawyer before she became chair of the Conservatives and a peer.
Baroness Warsi was asked a number of questions – from Anushka and the audience – about how her Muslim identity and Pakistani heritage had impacted her life and career. She said her religion had rarely led her to feel like an outsider, but that her race had caused her some strife when, as a young girl, she moved to a community in Kent that was very white. It was interesting to hear that later, in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, she had felt more integrated in the local community because it was very multicultural, so lots of people came from diverse racial backgrounds.
In response to some questions regarding her youth, Warsi spoke about her new book, The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain, which explores changes in British attitudes, policy towards Islam, and the challenges that still face British Muslims. She recalled an event early in her political career when a gentleman sitting across from her in a meeting described her as “the enemy at the table”. Warsi explained that her book is a response to this comment and an explanation as to how she had reflected on this man’s view in the years that followed. She made clear it wasn’t a comment that had angered her, but something she had accepted as one man’s opinion.
While the book was the focal point of the event, during the evening Warsi was called upon far more to answer tricky questions about her Conservatism. She made clear she agrees with what the party stands for, even if she doesn’t always agree with the decisions and actions of all its representatives. She was willing to be candid and forthright, and Anushka did a great job of pushing her to answer some complex questions without being aggressive. This combination made for some really lively debate.
Warsi recounted the day Cameron offered her a cabinet role when she was in her 30s. She was very humble, describing it as partly due to being in the right place at the right time. She was positive and hopeful about Brexit, and characterised Theresa May as someone who doesn’t play politics and gets on with doing the job. Interestingly, Warsi also stressed the importance of there being strong opposition to whoever is in government – she said that the Tories do best when their opponents hold them to account.
Of all the Guardian Live events I’ve attended, this was possibly the most engaging; I had enjoyed a rounded discussion with a really fascinating woman.
