Davis in 'UK apartheid' warning

BBC ^ | 10/15/06 | n/a

[kiriath_jearim]

The row over Muslim women wearing veils shows how Britain risks creating a system of "voluntary apartheid", shadow home secretary David Davis has warned.

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Davis questioned whether there was a "series of closed societies" in the UK.

[Mr Davis is worried that Britain is becoming a divided society]

And he said there was a growing feeling the Muslim community was "excessively sensitive to criticism" and "unwilling to engage in substantive debate".

Last week Commons leader Jack Straw said the veils caused "separateness".

Government 'confused'

Mr Davis, the Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden, said religious divisions were threatening to "corrode" fundamental values such as freedom of speech.

He said there was a feeling some Muslim leaders wanted to be protected "from criticism, argument, parody, satire and all the other challenges that happen in a society that has free speech as its highest value".

Mr Davis accused the government of showing a "confused, confusing and counterproductive" attitude towards the problem of integration.

He expressed sympathy for Mr Straw's admission that he asked women to remove their veils when they came to his constituency offices.

But Mr Davis insisted that the problem went deeper.

"What Jack touched on was the fundamental issue of whether, in Britain, we are developing a divided society," he said.

"Whether we are creating a series of closed societies within our open society.

"Whether we are inadvertently encouraging a kind of voluntary apartheid."

[Utahrd]

"We British Muslims are an open-minded, tolerant, progressive people. And if you disagree, we'll have a Fatwa issued against you and have you murdered."

[proxy_user]

Well, as long as multiculturalism didn't inconvenience the ruling classes, nobody said anything.

But now the debate begins.....

[R.W.Ratikal]

Apartheid has a bad name. But in worked in South Africa. While apartheid existed in South Africa it was the richest, most advanced nation on the continent of Africa.

Both blacks and whites had more. There was more housing for the poor and fewer poor among blacks. Its gross national product, exports and per capita income were the highest on the entire continent.

South Africa had more industry, railroads, schools, universities, modern cities, ports, and social institutions than any other country in Africa.

When the official policy of apartheid ended and Nelson Mandela and the Black Communist party took over the country began to go downhill. The nation that was is no longer and the jungle has take back its own.

You might not like to read this, but I didn't make it so.

[SauronOfMordor]

And for a country further down the path, look at Rhodesia