Gay rights The gay rights organisation
Stonewall, along with several Labour politicians, questioned her suitability for a high-profile Conservative Party role, owing to leaflets issued during her 2005 election campaign that claimed that
lowering the age of consent in 2001 had "[allowed] school children to be propositioned for homosexual relationships" and that homosexuality "undermines family life". Warsi described the contents of the leaflets as "fact". On a 2009 episode of
Question Time, Warsi was supportive of same-sex
civil partnerships. Speaking in December 2013 at a
BNP Paribas event in support of
Kaleidoscope Trust, she apologised for her leaflets and said the Conservative Party had been "on the wrong side of history" on gay rights.
Islam Following a confrontation in November 2009 by a group of protestors in
Luton accusing her of not being a proper Muslim, a man was jailed for six weeks for a public order offence of throwing an egg at Warsi. Warsi argued against following the example of France by banning Muslim women from wearing the veil, as this was "not the British way", although she commented that those who choose to wear garments such as the full-face veil must accept that there are some situations in which it is not appropriate. In 2009, she was named as "Britain's most powerful Muslim woman" by an
Equality and Human Rights Commission panel and in 2010 as one of the world's "500 most influential Muslims" by the
Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, a Middle East
think tank. In the April 2016 issue of
Dabiq magazine, The
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared her a
murtadd (or
apostate) for being among a group of "overt
crusaders" who "directly involve themselves in politics and enforcing the laws of
kufr". In February 2018, Warsi received a front-page apology and a payout of £20,000 over a claim in an opinion piece in the UK publication
Jewish News that she had sought to excuse the conduct of the Islamic State terrorist group.
Brexit On 20 June 2016, three days before the
referendum on membership of the European Union, Warsi said that she could no longer support the Leave campaign because of what she claimed was its
xenophobia, and would vote to remain within the EU. A spokesman for
Vote Leave said that they were not aware that Warsi had ever been a supporter.
Islamophobia In May 2018, Warsi stated that the
Prime Minister,
Theresa May should publicly acknowledge that
Islamophobia was a problem in the Conservative Party and that the party was in denial about the problem." In July that year, a week after the
Muslim Council of Britain repeated its call for an independent inquiry into Islamophobia and accused the Conservatives of turning a blind eye to Islamophobia claims, Warsi called on the Conservatives to launch a "full independent inquiry" into Islamophobia in the party. She accused Conservative Chair
Brandon Lewis of a "woefully inept" response to recent complaints and added that MP
Zac Goldsmith should receive "mandatory diversity training" following his unsuccessful attempt to beat
Sadiq Khan to become
Mayor of London.
Church and society Nichols in 2012 In September 2010, during the visit of
Pope Benedict XVI to England and Scotland, Warsi said the Labour Government appeared to have viewed
religion as "essentially a rather quaint relic of our pre-industrial history. They were also too suspicious of faith's potential for contributing to society – behind every faith-based charity, they sensed the whiff of conversion and exclusivity. And because of these prejudices they didn't create policies to unleash the positive power of faith in our society." She returned to this theme, as a Cabinet minister, in February 2012, saying "Britain is under threat from a rising tide of militant secularisation", before an official visit to the
Vatican to mark the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties between the UK and the Vatican. She added, "I am not calling for some kind of 21st century theocracy. Religious faith and its followers do not have the only answer. There will be times when politicians and faith leaders will disagree. What is more, secularism is not intrinsically damaging. My concern is when secularisation is pushed to an extreme, when it requires the complete removal of faith from the public sphere". A Muslim herself, Warsi says that Europe needs to be "more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity". In November 2013, Warsi told an audience at the
University of Cambridge that faith was being put back at the "heart of government", as it had been under
Winston Churchill and
Margaret Thatcher. The Coalition, she argued, is one of the "most pro-faith governments in the West ... More often than not, people who do God do good." She said that religious groups must be allowed to provide public services without the State being "suspicious of their motives". Quoting Thatcher she said, "I wonder whether the State services would have done as much for the man who fell among thieves as the Good Samaritan did for him?" ==Controversies==