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October 16, 2006
Veiled upset .....
The debate about the wearing of veils by Muslim women when attending meetings or other events and functions seems set to develop into a full blown confrontation over a number of "religious" usages. On the one hand it seems to be developing into a row about the whole issue of wearing so-called "Islamic dress" and on the other it is really about the dominance of a particular cultural view of appropriate conduct and dress codes. In all honesty, the Islamic world finds the Western mode of dress, particularly for women, unacceptable. But does this mean that it is right and proper for them to dictate that their own women should be covered in the Burkha? Or to veil their faces in public? I would argue strongly that it is not. In fact I would argue that it is an affront to women that they should be forced to hide from the public eye at all - and even that it is not in the Quran that they should do so either!
Unfortunately this is also linked to the recent government drive to promote the practice of Islam at the expense of what was left of British culture and the Christian faith. Multi-culturalism is the root cause of the tensions now emerging in our fragmented society and the bleating of the incompetent Ms Kelly that "extremism must be rooted out" is unlikely to have any effect at all. One manifestation of the drive to suppress any faith other than Islam is the decision of the Heathrow BA manager to suspend a worker who refused to remove or cover up the symbol of her own faith. Apparently BA sees no conflict between allowing a follower of Islam to wear a hijab over her uniform, but any Christian symbol is deedmed offensive. Personally I find that deeply offensive. In fact I find the wearing of Arab dress - designed for and suited to the deserts of the Middle East - by public servants in this country an affront. There is only one reason for wearing this form of dress and that is to set themselves apart from our society and as long as they do, there will be conflict and fuel for the extremists on both sides to promote enmity.
We can no longer call this a Christian country, it is not. At present it is a secular and extremely matrerialistic society - Post Christian if you like - but if Blair and his minions continue to ignore the very basic principle that a divided society is a society in conflict, we will soon have to choose whether to live as a "tolerated" minority in an Islamic dominated theocracy or leave. That is the simple message underlying the insistance on being allowed to hide their faces and their identities from non-Muslims and in maintaining a separation from anything that has marked our society as free, fair and just in the past.
I seldom agree with anything any member of this government says or does, but on this occassion I think Mr Straw is correct. If these women wish to consult their MP, the veil comes off. If they wish to be treated in the NHS, they do so without the veil! It is time to stand up and insist on integration and the abandonment of the Wahabi Cult's patristic vision, rooted as it is in the ethics of a desert people living in the 7th Century. It has no place in our society and no place at all in the modern world.
Posted by The Gray Monk at October 16, 2006 07:37 PM
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