British Muslim minister quits government over Gaza policy

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Photo taken from the personal website of Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, showing her during UK Bahrain Islamic Finance Summit in April.

A British minister who was the first Muslim woman to sit in the Cabinet has resigned over the British government's policy on Gaza, she said Tuesday.
      
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a minister at the Foreign Office and minister for faith and communities, wrote on Twitter: "With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza."       

Warsi's parents were Pakistani immigrants and she was made a member of the House of Lords in 2007.
      
She was appointed to Cameron's Cabinet when his coalition government took power in 2010 and while she initially had a high media profile, her star had dimmed in recent years.
      
She was shuffled out of the full Cabinet, the powerful inner circle of government ministers, in 2012.
      
Cameron's coalition government has drawn criticism, including from the opposition Labour party, for not taking a tougher line against Israel over operations in Gaza.
      
He said on Monday that the UN was "right" to condemn the shelling of a UN school in Gaza which killed 10 people on Sunday but declined to say whether he thought it breached international law.