Straw faces criticism over Muslim veil comments | October 07, 2006

AM - Saturday, 7 October , 2006 08:11:00
Reporter: Stephanie Kennedy
From ABC

ELIZABETH JACKSON: In Britain, there's been an angry backlash over comments suggestions that Muslim women should not wear full veils in public.

Straw faces criticism over Muslim veil comments (cont.)

Yesterday one senior Government minister asked Muslim women not to wear the veil when they came to speak to him at his electorate office.

Now he's suggesting it represents a visible statement of separation, which is causing divisions within the British community.

Stephanie Kennedy reports from London.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: Jack Straw, a former Foreign Minister and now leader of the House of Commons, has made it clear he doesn't have a problem with Muslim women wearing a head scarf. But he is concerned with those who wear a full veil that covers the whole face.

A day after asking Islamic women to discard their veils when meeting with their MPs, because it hampers communications, he's now gone one step further.

He's calling on all Muslim women not to wear full veils in public, in a bid to help relations with the rest of the community.

JACK STRAW: It's about the face. It's to do with veils; it's to do with how we relate to strangers.

Communities are bound together, partly by informal chance relations between strangers, people acknowledging each other in the street, being able pass the time of day, sharing these experiences in the street, and that is just made more difficult if people are wearing a veil. That's just a fact of life. I think it's quite important to bring those issues out.

I understand the concerns raised. I hope that, however, there can be a mature debate about this.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: And a debate is exactly what he's got. There's been heated reaction.

Nearly 30 per cent of Jack Straw's northern England electorate is Muslim. On the streets there was a mixed reaction from both Muslim and non-Muslim voters.

VOX POP 1: I see that as extremism anyway. I mean, covering the face and all, because it's good to see who you're talking to. Yeah, I agree with him.

VOX POP 2: He's someone whose that's not even related, not even of the same religion, and for him to want to see her face, is unacceptable really.

VOX POP 3: I wouldn't ever think that Jack would mean anything bad by this.

VOX POP 4: He was right, what he said.

VOX POP 5: I think he made a bit of a boo-boo there.

VOX POP 6: I think that the Muslims should be able to wear whatever dress they want to dress, same as I'm entitled to wear a cross around my neck.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: Social commentator and author Melanie Phillips agrees with Jack Straw's views.

MELANIE PHILLIPS: The fact is, that this kind of veil is associated with the most extreme politicised form of Islam.

That is to say, a form of Islam which says that Islamic values have to trump the values to everybody else, including civil society.

So if someone is wearing the veil, they are associating themselves with a creed, a political ideology which says that the religious values of Islam must trump the values of Britain.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: But Sheraz Arshad from the Lancaster Council of Mosques in Mr Straw's electorate disagrees that wearing the veil is the cause of community division.

SHERAZ ARSHAD: I think that's a little bit irresponsible, because that may well be one of the issues when this is discussed in a mature and sensible way.

But I think it's not the only thing, if anything. I think there's a number of issues which are causing community divisions.

You know, I think it's wrong to focus in on that one. It is selective discrimination I think to an extent, and perhaps he ought to have a more informed, intelligent debate about this, rather than just focusing on one part of it.

STEPHANIE KENNEDY: The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, moved swiftly to distance himself from Jack Straw's views. His office says Mr Straw is expressing a personal opinion, and not government policy.

There are questions about why Jack Straw has raised this issue now. Some suggest he's trying to position himself for the job of Deputy Prime Minister when that becomes vacant next year.

Whatever his motives, he's certainly stirred up a heated debate.

This is Stephanie Kennedy in London for Saturday AM.
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Posted by admin at October 7, 2006 09:51 AM