Shabna Begum, who became the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust earlier this year, said the country was entering a new phase in how it talks about Muslims.
"Sayeeda Warsi coined the term 'the dinner table test', but I think we've got even beyond that," she said. "The way politicians talk about Muslims now is so derogatory, it's in the most brutally divisive terms."
She said that unless something changed in political rhetoric and policy, last summer's riots would happen again. "[The riots were] the ugliest representation of the years of racism that have been manufactured through the political media conversation. And if we don't do something differently, that won't be a one-off, and that ugliness will become just a regular feature of our politics."
This story is from the November 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the November 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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