LOL!
Posted on 10/05/2006 11:36:08 PM PDT by MadIvan
Jack Straw provoked anger yesterday by suggesting that community relations would be helped if Muslim women did not wear full veils.
The Leader of the Commons disclosed that for the past year he had been asking women who visited his constituency office to remove their veils so that he could see them face-to-face. He always made sure that he was accompanied by a female member of staff and so far no constituent had refused to lift her veil.
Mr Straw said that wearing the full veil was bound to make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult, as it could be seen "as a visible statement of separation and difference". He had felt "uncomfortable" whenever a woman had worn one in his Blackburn constituency office.
A prominent Muslim scholar described his comments as "untimely" and giving out "a mixed message".
Sheik Ibrahim Nogra, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "On the one hand he says this is a free country. On the other, he is denying that free choice to a woman who chooses to wear the veil.
"Does Mr Straw mean that people should give up certain cultural and religious customs and practices simply because a vast majority of the country do not share them?
"That is calling for assimilation. That is saying that one culture or one way of life is superior to another.
"If we are truly multicultural, we have to accept that there will be women who want to dress in this way."
Sheik Ibrahim, who trained as an imam, said: "I have a beard and I wear a traditional long shirt. Sometimes I wear a turban and a hat. Am I going to be his next subject of concern?" He said he welcomed a debate but Muslims "would want ownership of the outcome of that debate".
Dr Reefat Drabu, the chairman of the social and family affairs committee of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, said: "If Mr Straw thinks this is going to break down barriers, it isn't. If anything, it is going to alienate Muslim women and be a catalyst for more of them to wear the veil and prove a point."
She added: "If you are trying to build bridges, you need to listen to what Muslims are saying. The problems that alienate women are to do with foreign policy and no one seems to take any notice of that. This country is supposed to celebrate diversity. That is the wonderful thing about this country: that it accepts, that it is tolerant. Women who wear the veil are making the statement that they are separate from society and that is why they wear it."
Mr Straw, a former foreign secretary who has sought strong links with Muslims, said: "The Muslim Council of Great Britain has made clear that this is an issue that theologically the Islamic community is divided on. Most of my Muslim constituents don't mind if I ask them to lift their veils."
He said he began "mulling over" the matter a year ago after a veiled constituent attended one of his surgeries and said she was pleased to meet him face-to-face.
" 'Chance would be a fine thing,' I thought to myself but did not say aloud," he wrote in his weekly column for the Lancashire Telegraph. "It was not the first time I had conducted an interview with someone in a full veil, but this particular encounter, though very polite and respectful on both sides, got me thinking." Mr Straw's intervention was backed by Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire, who has been a leading campaigner against forced marriages.
She said: "I'm quite sure that there will be hundreds of people saying it's awful and insensitive and disgraceful but I agree with every word.
"I have no problem with Muslim women wearing a scarf but to exclude the person you are talking to from your facial expressions is not reasonable." However Hazel Blears, the Cabinet minister without portfolio, said on BBC1's Question Time that while it was right to discuss such issues "I do not think it's right for Government to lay down laws about what people should wear".
Appearing on the same programme, Oliver Letwin, the Conservative's policy chief, said: "Muslim women who want to wear a veil should be able to wear a veil."
The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Rev John Goddard, said he hoped that Mr Straw's comments would act "as a catalyst for debate and real dialogue".
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Didn't he know that tomorrow is friday?
ARAB OUTRAGE!!!! YAAAARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
You know you are not too purdy if he says, "PUT IT BACK ON!"
Is it just me or does this statement contradict itself? If one is separating oneself from society, in what way are you contributing to its "diversity"? In what way are you demonstrating tolerance towards the other members of that society?
Regards, Ivan
LOL!
A Muslim said that? With a straight face?
The mind boggles.
Yes, which exactly the point the Pope was making. "Multiculturalism" has become Europe's name for disarming themselves in a war of cultures begun by muslims.
I don't wear sunglasses when I visit my Congressman or talk to my doctor.
UK Muslims don't want assimilation. They want parasitism and they get it when you see how many are breeding large families paid 100% by welfare
They do not want to be follow the rules of the country in which they have chosen to live and they expect us to turn around and accomodate them while they slowly erode the freedoms that made the UK so attractive in the first place.
I cannot speak for the rest of Europe, but a series of under-reported incidents in the UK such as this Patrols stepped up after violence imply that people here are beginning to get fed up.
If I know my countrymen, this is just the beginning.
Problem is the women do not "choose" they are coerced, and threatened with rape or death in some parts of the world.
No, you stupid goat effer. Assimiliation is only saying that when you become a citizen of another country, you need to make an effort to act like one.
Islamists remind me of the Borg.
"Does Mr. Straw mean that people should give up certain cultural and religious customs and practices
[ --- like honor killings, stoning women to death, forced marriages of 13 year old girls, denying women an education, kidnapping and confining of women who become 'too Western,' killing of homosexuals, etc., decaptitating journalists and politicians in broad daylight in a public street, rtc., etc., etc.]
simply because a vast majority [of a civilized country] do not share them?"
Fixed.
"He said he welcomed debate but MUSLIMS WOULD WANT OWNERSHIP OF THE OUTCOME OF THAT DEBATE."
Unfixable.
... except, perhaps with a swift kick in the bum back to your third world, seventh century hell-hole.
Too late.
"On the other, he is denying that free choice to a woman who chooses to wear the veil."
"Muslim women who want to wear a veil should be able to wear a veil."
Hmmmm.... FREE CHOICE??? Women who WANT to wear a veil? I guess, considering the muslim alternative (beheading, stoning, etc.) wearing a veil would be safer. But I noticed an interesting point in this article, and that is all the quoted muslims and imams are speaking FOR the woman.
If it's true that the veiled women who were in Straw's office removed the veil when asked, without hesitation, then that says it all.
Straw was probably a little out of line, considering his request was more about HIS comfort zone rather than hers, but it still speaks volumes.
We probably won't hear from any muslim women on this.
Regards, Ivan
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