Today, we will see the UK’s first female Prime Minister in the 26 years since Margaret Thatcher. Perhaps this is why she was referred to, in one tongue-in-cheek article circulating online, as Thatcher’s final Horcrux. The damage May has done to the liberal freedoms of Muslims in the UK, after all, could only beg a Voldemort-like comparison.

Few politicians have excelled at damaging entire communities as Theresa May has. While paying lip service to the “promotion of British values” as a strategy to tackle extremism, May failed to recognise the irony of the draconian Counter Terrorism and Security Bill 2015. The policies that arose from this bill taped shut the mouths of Muslim university students to voice their opinions in lectures and seminars for fear of being deemed extremist, making a mockery of that “British value” of freedom of speech. It became clear soon after that the Bill gives people permission to be Islamophobic, framing as it does terrorism as a “Muslim problem”.

Although it now humorously forgoes common sense to the extent that nursery age kids are suspected to have radical views (one four-year-old boy was almost referred to a counter-extremism programme, according to his mother, because he drew a cucumber that teachers mistook for a “cooker bomb”) the effects of CTS Bill remain chilling.

It is the mandatory presence of Prevent officers in public spaces, acting effectively as spies, which alienates Muslims, rather than anything to do with their religion.

May claims that she has “strengthened the response” to terrorism since becoming Home Secretary, resulting in a safer country for everyone, but she really just made fewer British Muslims identify as culturally British.

One major success of her candidacy as leader of the Conservative Party was the deportation of Abu Qatada, a move almost blocked by the Human Rights Convention. In that case, May was scornful of the meddling HRC. Strange, then, that she used the Human Rights Convention as a means to halt the extradition of Gary McKinnon to the US - while allowing that of Talha Ahsan. Both had Asperger’s Syndrome. Both were charged of roughly the same crime. The difference was that Talha Ahsan is a Muslim. In doing this, she gave us a clear message: there is one rule for white people in Theresa May’s Britain, and another for the Muslims that reside there.

'Brexit Means Brexit' - Theresa May Gives First Speech as Tory Leader

As she aims to prove herself the Iron Lady of modern day Britain, I fear that Theresa May’s track record as Home Secretary will result in the extended isolation and denigration of the British Muslim community. Awarded the Islamophobe of the Year award by the Islamic Human Rights Commission in 2015, her rise to prime ministerial power is hardly cause for celebration if you’re a British Muslim like me.

It’s starkly evident that May’s actions as Home Secretary created an atmosphere where hatred and violence toward Muslims became a social norm. When it was announced that she was to become Prime Minister by default, I pictured 3 million British Muslims on an iceberg being violently prodded by May to move further away from their faith. We used to think “British Muslim” wasn’t a contradiction in terms. Now we fear the two words can never seem compatible in the eyes of the white British public or, increasingly, in the eyes of the Muslim community.

The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Brexit The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be ‘no second referendum’ and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means Reuters The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address General election This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be ‘no general election’ at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party Getty The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address HS2 Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, ‘returning were as tedious as go o’er.’ Billions have already been spent. But the £55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Heathrow expansion Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium PA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Trident renewal David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britain’s nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Scottish Independence Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014 AFP/Getty