Posted on 10/17/2006 9:54:24 PM PDT by MadIvan
Britons gave overwhelming backing last night to a call for a ban on full-face Muslim veils.
Ninety-eight per cent of Daily Express readers agreed that a restriction would help to safeguard racial harmony and improve communication.
Our exclusive poll came as ministers stepped up the pressure on Muslim leaders to demonstrate "real leadership" in the fight against extremism.
Thousands of readers registered their alarm amid mounting concern that the veil is a barrier to good race relations.
The controversy was underlined by yesterday’s Daily Express revelation that bosses at a medical school have barred Muslim students from wearing the veil. Instead, they must show their faces when talking to patients and in meetings with colleagues.
The debate – sparked when the Commons Leader Jack Straw said he had asked women to remove their veils during meetings – continued yesterday as two Cabinet ministers joined the row.
Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly dismissed claims that the Government was "demonising" Muslims, insisting everybody had a part to play in responding to the extremist threat.
"This is not just a problem for Muslim communities. The Far-Right is still with us, still poisonous, still trying to create and exploit divisions," she said.
"Extremism is an issue for all of us. We all must play our part in responding to it."
Councils will have to set out how they intend to prevent radicalisation in their communities. After talks with police chiefs and local authorities, Ms Kelly said: "We really have to raise our game. We have to work in a new way to face up to the size of the threat."
She refused to back down on moves to withdraw support for Muslim groups that failed to take a leading role in tackling extremism but said the Government was "absolutely committed" to working with organisations with a "genuine commitment" to pluralism.
In a letter to Muhammad Abdul Bari, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, she rejected claims that ministers would not work with those who disagreed with Government policy.
But she added: "I don’t accept that those in leadership positions can be passive in tackling extremism and yet expect government support. The question the public are not unreasonably asking is why should any organisation object to taking a leadership role in tackling extremism?"
Her letter followed Dr Bari’s claim that ministers were "marginalising" Muslims with comments such as Mr Straw’s suggestion that Muslim women should remove their veils.
Dr Bari said: "What is happening… has been a barrage of demonisation of the Muslim community to such an extent that the community is now scared and feels vulnerable."
The decision to ban veils was taken by Birmingham University school of medicine. In the Daily Express poll, 98 per cent of readers said veils should be banned from all hospitals.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said women who covered their faces were failing to take their full place in society.
"The veil is a symbol of women’s subjugation to men," she said. "Women who are heavily veiled, whose identity is obscured to the world apart from their husbands, cannot take their full place in society."
But one Muslim Labour MP accused colleagues of playing into the hands of racists. Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, warned that "hype" over a small number of people encouraged "Muslim-bashing".
"The only people this will benefit is the Far-Right BNP," he warned. "It will also encourage extremists from the Muslim community who will say, ‘We told you so’."
Labour former Home Office Minister John Denham said ministers’ comments were exacerbating matters.
"In a situation where there is too little understanding between the Muslim community and the wider community, and vice-versa, it seems to be producing a defensiveness and lack of willingness to debate on the Muslim side and in the majority a sort of generalised feeling that Muslims as a whole pose some sort of threat to our entire way of life," he said.
Tory leader David Cameron said everyone in Britain had a right to wear what they liked although Mr Straw had "raised a legitimate issue".
"You should walk into a bank wearing a ski mask, to see how free you are to wear masks, here."
Some banks require you to remove hats and sunglasses as well.
There is if you don't have the wisdom and common sense to use it wisely.
Do Amish women have a good reason to hide their faces?
I use my freedom wisely but I do not look to you to tell me what is wise.
Amish women don't hide their faces.
"Like I said, there's no good reason to hide one's face in public. Carnival is NOT a good reason."
Totally disagree. You need to get a life and not be so worried about people having fun.
I have to agree on this one.
going after the veils shouldn't be the target.
The things they need to go for broke on is:
No child marriages
No forced marriages
Deportation for anyone doing extreme preaching at mosques.
Maximum year sentences for honor killings (anyone in the family involved in it goes on trial as well).
"Amish women don't hide their faces."
Still a some women who wear veils on their wedding day.
Good job!!!
If someone used their "freedom" to break into my house, they would quickly find me using my imperative to educate them about my freedom to rip their ski mask off their face and shoot them between the eyes.
I agree. I do think that there should be reasonable exceptions. Drivers license photo, passport photo, police searches, etc.
Sorry you feel that way, it's a deadly philosophy that is destroying America, and rather quickly today. What many folks pass off as "freedom" today is actually just their base desires wanting to be unleashed without any consequences.
But when you ask the only real exprets, those who actually fought for freedom, what it is, they'll tell you it means freedom from government tyranny and oppression, freedom to educate yourself and work, freedom to practice the faith of your choice, (so long as it's a true religion with a peaceful end, and not a bloody, barbaric death cult all dressed up as 'religion'.) Freedom is the right to marry the person of you choice, providing she/he is your opposite sex and the marriage can bear fruit instead of packing fudge. Sodomy and the spreading of AIDS around by two men sodomizing each other is not marraige, but rather it is a mockery of the true meaning of marriage.
With freedom comes committments by those who are blessed with it, committments to vote, committments to fight the enemies of freedom when they pose a impending threat to our way of life. When "freedom" is defined as an open society that allows people to disseminate pornography under "free speech" protection, and it allows co-habiting homosexuals to sue corporations for the same benefits which married couples get, then that's not freedom, it's legalized vice.
When a country has public mask laws to help fight crime and make the streets safe, it is not "freedom" to allow some subculture from the medieval dark ages to walk around with full face masks and robes; that's just political correctness that endangers the majority who enacted the law.
For every person who could simply be caring on some innocent fun, there could be a person wanting to have "fun" at my expense. I agree w/ Mr. Straw. If someone wants to invade my personal space, they better be willing to let me see all their face, even if it's for a brief moment.
I have lived in a closed society and as well as open societies, I prefer the latter.
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