fbpx
Search Donate

Show results for
  • News
  • Videos
  • Action Alerts
  • Events
  • Resources
  • MEND

Petition underway to ban burqa and niqab in the UK

Petition underway to ban burqa and niqab in the UK

Categories: Latest News

Friday July 25 2014

The Times today covers the petition launched by Taj Hargey to have the burqa and niqab banned in Britain following the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights defending a ban imposed by the French state.

The paper notes Hargey’s hope that attracting 100,000 signatures will force a parliamentary debate on the matter.

Curious among the claims made by Hargey in defence of the ban and his petition in support of one is this:

“In the past, only rightwing groups wanted to proscribe the burka and niqab. The difference now is that progressive and integrated Muslims are in the forefront of this extraordinary endeavour.”

How revealing that he should regard as ‘progressive and integrated’ those Muslims who think the state should dictate a woman’s dress; who avail themselves of illiberal and draconian measures to impose their beliefs on others and who dismiss female agency thinking it their business to determine a woman’s sense of self. Progressive and integrated indeed!

Hargey goes further, saying “If Britain’s political establishment do not tackle and defeat Islamic religious fanaticism now, it will become impossible to do so when Muslims become a bigger proportion of British society.”

The only thing ‘extraordinary’ about Hargey’s endeavour is the laying bare of the deliberate conflation of conservative religious practice with ‘Islamic religious fanaticism’ by bigots who masquerade as liberals.

The Times notes the opinion of a spokesperson from The Department for Culture Media and Sport who said: “Any restrictions on what a woman can wear in public would be out of keeping with British values and our nation’s longstanding record of religious tolerance and gender equality.”

Newsletter

Find out more about MEND, sign up to our email newsletter

Get all the latest news from MEND straight to your inbox. Sign up to our email newsletter for regular updates and events information

reCAPTCHA