Jilbab: A victory for fanaticism
Human rights was the Blairs’ pension plan long before they got into property speculation
By Richard Littlejohn
The Sun, 4 March 2005
If schoolgirl Shabina Begum actually wrote the speech she delivered on the steps of the Appeal Court yesterday then clearly her education hasn’t suffered from being refused permission to turn up for class dressed from head to toe in Islamic costume.
“The decision of Denbigh High School to prevent my adherence to my religion cannot unfortunately be viewed merely as a local decision taken in isolation. Rather it was a consequence of an atmosphere that has been created in Western societies post-9/11, an atmosphere in which Islam has been made a target for vilification in the name of the war on terror.”
Not bad for a 16-year-old. I wonder if her brief helped her draft it.
Miss Begum was speaking after winning a landmark case against the school, which sent her home because she insisted on wearing Muslim robes straight out of the Taliban catalogue instead of the approved uniform.
Not that she was being asked to parade around the playground in a St Trinian’s-style gymslip and pigtails. The school has a dress code which accommodates religious sensibilities and is perfectly acceptable to parents and pupils alike. The headmistress of Denbigh is herself a Muslim, as are 79 per cent of her pupils. Girls are allowed to dress modestly in skirt, trousers and a headscarf.
But that’s not good enough for the Islamic fundamentalists who want to turn Britain into a Stone Age theocracy.
This ruling was a victory for fanaticism. Muslim agitators have already been picketing the school trying to force other girls to comply with their own extreme ideas of how young women should dress.
What about the rights of the rest of society?