The 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

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

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw’s disgraceful comments about women wearing the veil threaten to produce the deep ethnic divisions he pretends to oppose. Respect is deeply angered that so senior a Labour politician could come out with such crude, headline grabbing, Islamophobic prejudice.

“Who does Jack Straw think he is to tell his female constituents that he would prefer they disrobe before they meet him,” says Respect MP George Galloway. “For that is what this amounts to. It is a male politician telling women to wear less. When put like that, there’s no one who would be considered part of the civilised political spectrum who would have anything but contempt for Straw.

“Yet, because this is about Muslims, we are seriously being told this is about breaking down the ‘barriers to community cohesion’. It is not women choosing to wear what they want that is sowing division in our society. It is poverty, racism and the despicable competition between the Tory and New Labour front benches over who can grab the headlines as the hammer of the Muslims.

“You only have to look at the three nights of violence directed against one Muslim family in Windsor to see where the real threat to a united and diverse community comes from.”

Respect news report, 5 October 2006