Category Archives: Hijab

The politics of choice

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Individuals and groups are entitled to decide how they wish to live, what they wish to eat, drink and wear, even if we strongly disapprove of their choices, as long as they cause no harm to others. Moreover, the state cannot intervene to impose a uniform way of life or way of thinking on its citizens. If it did, it would be sliding into totalitarianism. That is precisely what communism did in the name of cultural revolution, what Saudi Arabia is doing in the name of religion, what France is doing in the name of secularism, and what some sections of the media and political class would have us do in the name of integration and security.”

Soumaya Ghannoushi at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 9 October 2006

Jack Straw should be praised for lifting the veil on a taboo

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Jack Straw was right to make the simple human point that it is rather hard to conduct a conversation with someone wearing the full veil. He was also right to make the further point that the full veil does not help relations between different communities.

“He didn’t quite say that the veil has no place in a liberal secular society, but if that was his intention I agree with it. This is not to persecute Muslims for their beliefs or deny them rights: it is simply to say that the veil, like it or not, has become increasingly regarded as a symbol of separatist aspiration and of female subservience. Many wear it voluntarily, but it does not stop this being a symbol of women’s oppression which stretches back to the times of classical Greece.

Henry Porter in the Observer, 8 October 2006

Women who wear the veil can be ‘frightening and intimidating’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Phil WoolasMuslim women who cover their faces with veils can be “frightening and intimidating”, says Britain’s Race Minister Phil Woolas. Mr Woolas has raised the stakes with a warning that Muslim veils could increase racial tensions in Britain.

The minister, who has a large Muslim population in his Oldham constituency, backs Mr Straw for starting a national debate. But he warns Muslims must do more to avoid alienating people of other races and faiths.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror today, he says: “Muslim women have every right to wear a veil covering their face. But they must realise that other people who don’t understand their culture can find it frightening and intimidating.”

Sunday Mirror, 8 October 2006

See also BBC News, 7 October 2006

Offended by Straw’s comments on the veil? Go back where you came from

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Simon Jenkins“When Straw asks his women constituents if they might remove their veils during interviews – he does not insist – he was reacting like any normal person to conversing with someone in a mask. To a westerner such conversation is rude. If Muslim women, and it is a tiny number, cannot understand this, it is reasonable to ask why they want to live in Britain…..

“What to a Londoner is an exotic sight on the other side of the street, in the Midlands or northwest is a declaration of apartheid. It announces a group of newcomers who will integrate legally but not culturally, commercially but not socially…. Those who claim such hospitality owe some duty of respect to their hosts, or at the very least cannot complain if the hosts object.”

Simon Jenkins in the Sunday Times, 8 October 2006

Jenkins is, of course, such an expert on the subect that he can’t tell a burqa from a niqab.

More anti-Muslim propaganda from the Express

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims pledge to ruin StrawAnother characteristically stupid and provocative headline from the Sunday Express. The accompanying article asserts that “an unholy alliance of Muslims and far-Right extremists was last night threatening Jack Straw’s future as an MP”. Needless to say, no such alliance exists and the Express offers no evidence that it does.

The Blackburn Muslims interviewed are divided over expressing regret at Straw’s comments, asking for a discussion with him, calling for an apology and demanding his resignation. Only two of those interviewed adopt the latter position.

As for the BNP, it aims to take advantage of the anti-Muslim sentiments provoked by Straw’s comments by standing against him in the next general election. The fascists’ spokesman Phil Edwards is quoted as saying that Straw has played a “subtle” version of the race card in order to boost his standing with white voters. (The BNP, of course, will do the same thing but dispense with the subtlety.) Edwards adds: “We have been saying this about Muslim dress for some time. It’s all part of the problems of a multi-cultural Britain that he and the Labour Party helped to create.”

The article also quotes Tory defence minister Gerald Howarth as saying that parliament may be forced to change the law to ban the veil. “I don’t think we need to legislate today but the time may come – if this fashion grows – where we need to. It’s time we stood up for our Christian heritage.”

Sunday Express, 8 October 2006

Ban The Veil

Posted on by Eddie Truman

expressveilJack Straw’s playing of the racist Islamophobia card in pursuit of his career ambitions has resulted in a renewed deluge of anti Muslim poison.

The Daily Express is happy to further up the tension with a front page clearly calculated to incite hatred.

“Concerned Britons gave massive backing last night to calls for Muslim women to ditch the veil. An astonishing 97 per cent of Daily Express readers agreed that a ban would help to safeguard racial harmony. Our exclusive poll came a day after Leader of the Commons Jack Straw spoke out against the veils.”

Already the BBC has reported an attack on a Muslim woman because of the remarks of the Leader of the House of Commons. We shudder to think what the effect of the Daily Express front page will be on the racist morons just waiting to be incited by this.

Beneath contempt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

None of Straw's BusinessThe attempts by Jack Straw’s apologists to pass off his comments on Muslim women who wear the full face veil as an attempt to initiate a discussion are beneath contempt.

Mr Straw knew exactly what he was doing and why.

The Leader of the House had seen John Reid stage a political stunt in east London, using Muslim community leaders as a backdrop for TV cameras and enlisting the involvement of a seriously unwell convert to Islam to rant and rave at him for primetime news coverage.

Mr Reid then took full political advantage of the stunt to flaunt his “courage” in declaring that there would no no-go areas for his campaign against Islamist extremism.

Most of the media came along for the ride in the latest example of government ministers lecturing Britain’s Muslims on how to conduct themselves and how to ensure that their children behave.

All of a sudden, the Home Secretary was a statesman waiting to happen and, on the basis of telling Muslims where to get off, a possible candidate for Labour leader.

Put bluntly, Mr Straw saw this and wanted his turn in the spotlight, possibly as a prelude to standing for Labour Party deputy leader.

What a condemnation it is of the current state of politics today that the best way of gaining media attention and plaudits is by putting the boot into a religious minority that is based, largely, on ethnic minorities.

Editorial in the Morning Star, 7 October 2006

‘Veil is a banner of political Islam’, ultra-left sectarian claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The veil is not merely a piece of ‘cloth’, but a sign of the oppression of women, control over their sexuality, submissiveness to the will of God or a man. The veil is a banner of political Islam used, to segregate women born by historical accident in the so-called ‘Islamic World’ from other women in the rest of the world….

“Jack Straw’s government has always been proud of its ‘multicultural society’, in which all kinds of backward and anti-human cultures are respected and given space by the state…. Celebrating ‘different cultures’ the existence of mosques and religious schools is a place for brainwashing the young people with Islamic values which can only produce political Islamists.”

Houzan Mahmoud at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 7 October 2006

I note that comrade Mahmoud’s profile states that she is an activist in the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, but avoids mentioning that she is a member of a bizarre ultra-left sect called the Worker Communist Party of Iraq, of which the OWFI is just a front.

‘Whatever happened to free speech in Britain?’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“With the ink hardly dry on his words, Jack Straw is plunged into a maelstrom of denunciation for daring to suggest that Muslim women should discard the veil. Many of his constituents in Blackburn are vociferous in their dismay.

“The Lancashire Council of Mosques says he is ‘very insensitive and unwise’. The Islamic Human Rights Commission accuses him of ‘selectively discriminating’. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee attacks his ‘headline-grabbing’….

“But if this is the reaction to a calm and measured critique of Islamic culture – and one that is intended to open up a dialogue – what hope can there be of mature debate between the communities? Whatever happened to free speech Britain?

“Sadly, the pass was sold long ago. For years, this Government has actively promoted multiculturalism, encouraged Muslim ‘ghettoes’ and set its face against greater integration. Anyone who dared to question this new apartheid was routinely denounced as a ‘racist’.

“Britishness? Who cares? For New Labour – yes, including Mr Straw – it became an article of faith for the ethnic minorities to celebrate their own languages, culture and traditions, at the expense of shared values. There could hardly be a more effective recipe for division.

“Is it really surprising that some Muslims are now pressing for Sharia law in their own communities? Or if they see Mr Straw’s views on the veil as a juddering reversal of all that has gone before?”

Daily Mail, 7 October 2006

It’s selfish to wear the veil, says Straw aide

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Government was plunged into disarray as a senior Minister accused Muslim women of being “selfish” by refusing to stop wearing veils. Amid growing signs that the controversy is causing civil disorder, Commons Leader Jack Straw’s deputy Nigel Griffiths claimed that women who cover their faces in public are ignoring the feelings of others.

The row came as a 49-year-old mother’s veil was torn from her at a bus stop in Liverpool. Her daughter Ilham Ali said: “The man was shouting, ‘Pull that scarf off your head, you Muslim’. I’m 100 per cent certain the racist attack on my mum was a direct result of the comments Jack Straw made.”

Seventy people from the Stop The War Coalition, including 20 women in veils, staged a protest against Mr Straw in his Blackburn constituency. But he stood by his claim that veils were a “visible statement of separation and difference” and harmed community relations.

Mr Griffiths went a step further, saying: “It’s all very well for Muslim women to say that they feel comfortable wearing the veil but it is important that other people feel comfortable, too. The fact is that the veil does not make other people feel comfortable. In that way it could be said that they are being selfish. We live in a society where we applaud people for thinking about other people’s feelings.”

Evening Standard, 7 October 2006