Tory party co-chairman Baroness Warsi (right) must endure some awkward times at dinner parties. She really must because, as the UK's first Muslim woman cabinet minister, she felt strongly enough about attitudes towards her faith that she can only conclude that Islamophobia is now socially acceptable.
It had passed the dinner-table test, she said.
How often Warsi has to put up with ignorant remarks we do not know - certainly she has attracted hostility from members of her own faith, let alone those of other faiths or those of us who have none.
However, some people of faith believe their religion is beyond criticism, a maxim they would never apply to their belief, say, in economic theory. Anyone confident in their beliefs, whether it is in a god or in the theories of Milton Friedman, would surely welcome debate. It is, if nothing else, a sign of intellectual maturity.
That does not excuse some of the sweeping statements regarding Islam - misogyny and homophobia are favourite subjects - which can be applied equally to the other Abrahamic faiths. I don't see too many gay Christian clergy, for example - apart from the famous Dean Jeffrey John who is repeatedly overlooked for a bishopric. Nothing to do with being gay, I'm sure.
Ah, homophobia. How would that go down at a Warsi gathering? Another awkward moment, I suspect.
In 2005, Warsi, then a parliamentary candidate, accused Labour of passing laws allowing children to be "propositioned" for gay sex and that homosexuality was being peddled in schools to children as young as seven. It is barely worth adding that she also opposed the lowering of the age of consent for same-sex relationships.
That was six years ago and Warsi may have tempered her views, perhaps because she has belatedly seen reason or perhaps for political gain. Or perhaps she hasn't.
Dinner, your Ladyship?
Picture: Rex Features
