“Another smack in the face for the indigenous population of Britain – this time by the appeal court ruling that the Islamic jilbab can now be worn in schools by pupils, taking preference over the standard school uniform. This ruling has been given to placate the ethnic minority Muslims. This must surely mean that pupils can now wear any religious garb they care to mention. The French have learned from history by introducing laws stopping any more erosion of their way of life.”

Letter in the Sunday Express, 6 March 2005

Jilbab ruling is a bitter defeat for British beliefs

Letter in the Daily Express, 4 March 2004

The Appeal Court ruling may be a victory for Miss Begum, but it is a defeat for the rest of us.

Speaking after the Appeal Court’s decision was announced, Miss Begum said that it was a landmark victory (paid for by the taxpayer, of course) and would have profound consequences – it most certainly will.

She then went on to talk of the bigotry and intolerance she had suffered here.

If Miss Begum wants to know what real bigotry and intolerance are, she should go and live in one of the Muslim states where Sharia law prevails. Why are we bending over backwards to accommodate the Muslim community, yet making it more and more difficult for non-Muslims here to express their religious or national beliefs?

So-called ‘victories’ like that being celebrated by Miss Begum do nothing to foster tolerance – precisely the opposite in fact.

Can the day be far away when the son or daughter of naturist parents petitions the Court of Appeal for the right to go to school naked?

I have not heard anyone express anything but incredulity, and in most cases outrage, at the decision to allow this young lady to defy her school authorities.

Robert Readman, Bournemouth, Dorset

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?

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