Cameron 'crusade' to emancipate Muslim women

13 April 2012

Tory leader David Cameron has promised a new "crusade for fairness" as he pledged to tackle the oppression of Muslim women prevented from going out to work or attending university.

In an article for The Observer, Mr Cameron attacked "clunking" government attempts to promote community cohesion, such as urging Muslim parents to spy on their children or encouraging people to fly the Union flag on their lawns.

However, by invoking the language of the Medieval Crusades - when the Christian crusaders fought a series of bloody campaigns to take Jerusalem from the Muslims - the Conservative leader risked antagonising the Muslim community he was seeking to win over.

US president George Bush famously provoked a political storm when he called for a "crusade" against terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

In his article, Mr Cameron called for a "calm, thoughtful and reasonable" approach to building community cohesion and stressed that people could not be bullied into feeling British.

"It's no use behaving like the proverbial English tourist abroad, shouting ever more loudly at the hapless foreigner who doesn't understand what is being said. We can't bully people into feeling British - we have to inspire them," he said.

"Inspiring as well as demanding loyalty from every citizen will require a new crusade for fairness."

The paper also reported an extract of a speech Mr Cameron will deliver in Birmingham tomorrow, in which he will warn that in some parts of the community "women are being denied access to education, work, involvement in the political process and surprisingly even denied access to mosques".

According to the paper he will go on to say: "We must be bold, and not hide behind the screen of cultural sensitivity to say publicly that no woman should be denied rights which both their religion and their country, Britain, support".

A spokesman for the Tory leader said last night that Mr Cameron's reference to a "crusade" had not been intended to cause offence.

"What the article is saying is that a clear part of promoting cohesion is raising educational standards and giving everybody the opportunity to get on in life," the spokesman said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in