LONDON, 18 October 2006 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday entered the fray over the Muslim veil when he declared support for the Yorkshire school authority in suspending a Muslim teaching assistant, Aishah Azmi, for refusing to remove her veil, and warned that the garment represents “a mark of separation” from the rest of society.
At his monthly news conference at No. 10 Downing Street, Blair suggested that the country needs to debate the position of Muslims, but warned that Muslims also needed to decide how Islam comes to terms with modernity. “Difficult though these issues are, I think they have to be raised and confronted and dealt with. All I’m saying is that we need to have this debate on integration,” he said.
The prime minister suggested that the veil issue should be just one issue in a broader debate about “the relationship between our society and how the Muslim community integrates with our society. There’s a second issue which is about Islam itself, and how Islam comes to terms with and is comfortable with the modern world.” Similar debates, he said, were happening around Europe and in the Muslim world.
Former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw two weeks ago precipitated the current debate when he revealed that he requested veiled women to reveal their faces when they come to meet him at his constituency office in Blackburn.
Straw said that he was not being prescriptive and merely made a suggestion. He reiterated that he was not against the hijab (head covering), but merely thought that the niqab (face covering) could be a symbol of division and separateness.
Straw got support from a bevy of Cabinet ministers.
Blair was emphatic in his view of the divisiveness of the veil, when asked at the news conference whether a woman who wore the veil could make a full contribution to society. “(The veil) is a mark of separation, and that’s why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable. Now no one wants to say that people don’t have the right to do it, I mean that’s to take it too far. But I think we need to confront this issue about how we integrate people properly into our society,” he stressed.
On the continuing row over British troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blair pledged his forces would not “walk away” from either conflict until their job is done. However, perhaps in a hint of things to come, he said it was important for British troops not “to overstay” in Iraq.
Meanwhile in an interview with Reuters, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said that Muslim immigrant women should not be completely “hidden” behind full veils if they want to integrate and become part of Italy’s future.
“You can’t cover your face. If you have a veil, fine, but you must be seen,” Prodi said, adding: “This is common sense I think, it is important for our society. It is not how you dress but if you are hidden or not.”
