RNA - The former Conservative minister made her comments amid concerns for three British sisters who fled to Syria via Saudi Arabia with their nine children. Warsi, who is the first Muslim to serve in the British cabinet lived in the same area of 17-year-old Talha Asmal, the youngest Briton to commit a suicide attack in Iraq.
“Let’s first of all be very clear about finding the evidence base of what are the drivers to radicalization. It may make for uncomfortable reading but it is only when we start to have that honest conversation that we unpick what is now becoming a generational challenge,” Warsi said.
Lady Warsi suggested ministers should stop disengaging with the British Muslim community and reach out to them instead.
“We continue to hear these calls for the Muslim community, quite rightly, to do more with dealing with this issue of radicalization. But the British Muslim communities will be able to do that better with a government stood alongside it and collaborating with the community … Sadly over the last six or seven years there has been a policy of disengagement with British Muslim communities,” the former Conservative minister reiterated.
“It is incredibly odd and incredibly worrying that over time more and more individuals, more and more organizations are considered by the government to be beyond the pale and therefore not to be engaged with … Unfortunately the coalition government carried on that policy. It is now time to end that policy of disengagement and start speaking to the British Muslim communities, and empowering them to do more,” she added.
The comments came following the launch of an appeal to locate the 12 members of the Dawood family who traveled to Syria this week.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: “We are in contact with West Yorkshire police and Turkish authorities and are ready to provide consular assistance.”
Laour MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah said: “At this time there is no contact, absolutely zero contact with the women or children. The last contact was a few days ago when they were due to leave [Saudi Arabia].”
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