LONDON, 21 October 2006 — A Muslim teacher who was suspended for refusing to remove her full face veil will appeal a ruling rejecting her claims that she suffered discrimination and harassment, her lawyer has said.

Aishah Azmi, 24, has been at the center of a political storm over her suspension from a state-run primary school in Dewsbury, northern England, for refusing to remove her niqab, which leaves only her eyes exposed.

Azmi lost three claims of discrimination and harassment in her employment tribunal on Thursday, although she was awarded 1,000 pounds (1,500 euros, 1,900 dollars) for injured feelings.

“This is a new area of law in terms of religious belief discrimination,” said her lawyer Nick Whittingham on Friday. “It’s untested so we need to be taking that to a higher court.”

He told BBC radio they would examine whether the case fell into an area of direct or indirect discrimination.

“What we are trying to say is that she can do her job perfectly even if she is wearing a veil,” he said.

Azmi’s picture was on the front page of several newspapers Friday and she has been the focal point of a two-week simmering debate on the veil and Muslim integration, with Prime Minister

Tony Blair calling the veil a “mark of separation”.

Her local member of Parliament appealed for her to “let this thing go”, saying the employment tribunal had got it “absolutely spot on”.

Shahid Malik, of the governing Labour Party, told BBC radio: “I just think there is very little support for this, she is very isolated and it would be healthy all round if she just let it go and just accept the tribunal result.”

Main opposition Conservative leader David Cameron warned late Thursday that Muslims felt “slightly targeted” by the veils row —  though he had “great sympathy” with the school involved.

Cameron said the debate may not be helping to resolve the differences between Muslims and the rest of the British population. Politicians from all sides have been having their say on the issue.

“I think there is a danger of politicians piling in ... and really they have to ask themselves whether this is having an overall good effect or not,” Cameron told ITV television.

A defiant Azmi said after Thursday’s ruling: “Muslim women who wear the veil are not aliens and politicians need to recognise that what they say can have a very dangerous impact on the lives of the minorities they treat as outcasts.

“Integration requires people like me to be in the workplace so that people can see that we are not to be feared or mistrusted.”

The local council, which held the tribunal, had argued that face-to-face communication was essential for Azmi’s job as a bilingual support worker. She was suspended from her Church of England school on full pay in February.