Sources inside Number 10 tell me that while there was a ‘general awareness’ that Baroness Warsi was to give a speech on faith, they did not know the specifics of what she was going to say. They say that no text was cleared by Downing Street. They claim that the first they knew of the controversial lines in the speech was when they were informed that Warsi’s team had briefed them out to the Telegraph.
This will end in tears. Which is stupid.
Because there is a real need to 0ppose generalised hostility against cultural minorities in this country, including Muslims, wherever it manifests itself. There is also a need to oppose the whipping up of hostility against cultural minorities in this country, including by Islamist groups and hate preachers. The two tasks go hand in hand.
Get it wrong, and you end up in a public row.
