The Unveiling of a Debate
Something really interesting happened in Britain in the past week - political correctness was blown apart. First, a cabinet minister Jack Straw said that he would ask veiled Muslim ladies visiting him at his 'meet the people' session to remove their veils, and that veils impede on developing inter-community relationship. Incidentally, a slight majority of people polled agreed with Mr Straw.
In the same week, a junior minister asked for a veiled Muslim teacher to be sacked as he did not think she could teach effectively with the veil on. Interestingly, it later transpired that she had not worn a veil when she was interviewed for the job, thereby raising the suggestion that there was duplicity on her part to turn the veil into a political issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/6050392.stm
There was another eye catching incident when a Muslim cab driver refused to serve a blind person with a guide dog because his religion forbade him to go near dogs, which are considered unclean animals.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=taxi-driver-in-ban-on-guide-dog-&method=full&objectid=17888060&siteid=94762-name_page.html
The Conservative shadow secretary for home affairs later added that he felt that Muslims in UK were creating a voluntary 'apartheid', by choosing to live so distinctively apart from the rest of the communities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6052232.stm
It is very rare for mainstream politicians in the UK to talk about race and religion so openly - besides the usual platitudes. Too much tensions had been swept under the carpet for the sake of racial tolerance some might say. But there was certainly a shift in the mood in the past few weeks, particularly after the Pope's speech. More politicians in the UK are beginning to question the traditional 'do nothing' approach towards race and religious issues. Suddenly, it seems that every politician is getting into the race and religion debate.
Something really interesting happened in Britain in the past week - political correctness was blown apart. First, a cabinet minister Jack Straw said that he would ask veiled Muslim ladies visiting him at his 'meet the people' session to remove their veils, and that veils impede on developing inter-community relationship. Incidentally, a slight majority of people polled agreed with Mr Straw.
In the same week, a junior minister asked for a veiled Muslim teacher to be sacked as he did not think she could teach effectively with the veil on. Interestingly, it later transpired that she had not worn a veil when she was interviewed for the job, thereby raising the suggestion that there was duplicity on her part to turn the veil into a political issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/6050392.stm
There was another eye catching incident when a Muslim cab driver refused to serve a blind person with a guide dog because his religion forbade him to go near dogs, which are considered unclean animals.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=taxi-driver-in-ban-on-guide-dog-&method=full&objectid=17888060&siteid=94762-name_page.html
The Conservative shadow secretary for home affairs later added that he felt that Muslims in UK were creating a voluntary 'apartheid', by choosing to live so distinctively apart from the rest of the communities.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6052232.stm
It is very rare for mainstream politicians in the UK to talk about race and religion so openly - besides the usual platitudes. Too much tensions had been swept under the carpet for the sake of racial tolerance some might say. But there was certainly a shift in the mood in the past few weeks, particularly after the Pope's speech. More politicians in the UK are beginning to question the traditional 'do nothing' approach towards race and religious issues. Suddenly, it seems that every politician is getting into the race and religion debate.
posted by Bart JP at
1:58 pm
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