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Minister rules out veil ban in Britain

Minister Damian Green says Britain "very unlikely" to introduce a ban on Muslim women wearing veils

  • AFP
  • Published: 07:30 July 18, 2010

  • Image Credit: AP
  • The veil issue has become the focus for a debate about Islam and France's secular system, which separates church and state.

London: Britain was "very unlikely" to introduce a ban on Muslim women wearing face-covering veils despite widespread public support for such a move, Immigration Minister Damian Green said.

He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that a ban similar to that approved in France, and which a poll on Friday showed was backed by 67 per cent of Britons, was a "rather un-British thing to do".

A fellow Conservative lawmaker had earlier said he refused to meet female constituents who wore the face veil and had proposed a law to ban the practice.

However, Green said: "Telling people what they can and can't wear, if they're just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society."

The immigration minister acknowledged there were occasions when it was important to be able to see someone's face.

"But I think it's very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore," he said.

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Green added that unlike France, Britain was not "aggressively secular".

This week French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban face-covering veils in public, in a bill which will go to the Senate for approval.

Philip Hollobone, a member of parliament (MP) from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, said Saturday that he demands women remove their face veils when they visit him in his constituency in central England.

"If she said: 'No', I would take the view that she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is," he told the Independent newspaper.

"I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter."

Hollobone has also tabled a bill in parliament to regulate certain face coverings, although it will not be debated until December and is highly unlikely to become law due to a lack of government support.

About 400 Muslims live in Kettering, Hollobone's constituency, according to the local Muslim association, out of a total of 50,000 people in the town.

Comments (2)

  1. Added 17:31 July 6, 2010

    As it is the non-muslims' right to wear whatever they wish, so should it be the muslim women's right to wear what they desire. Cartoons were published about our beloved Prophet Muhammad PBUH and the heading was "freedom of expression". Then why not freedom for the muslims? I think France is adamantly banning the harmless hijab for no sensible reason.

    Sidra, ajman, United Arab Emirates

  2. Added 15:48 July 6, 2010

    Islam does not require women to cover their faces and I am opposed to the face covering as it creates a gap in society and portrays a bad image of Islam. Some peole argue in favor of the veil caliming that its a cultural habbit passed from one generation to the other, but that does not mean that its a good habbit. Bad habbits have to stop! In terms of what France is planning to do, I oppose this ban for some very logical reasons. Firstly, in response to those who calim that "when we come to your country, we respect your customs. Therefore when you come to our country you should respect our customs", this statement can only be valid to foreigners and tourists, NOT CITIZENS! If the UAE national population(Emirati) had a demographic of 95 % muslim and 5 % Christian(Emirati), I would assure you that the UAE government would not have passed laws that would signal or offend its minority citizens. What France is doing is simply signalling and stripping its minority citizens from their rights. Sorry France, but you cannot be democratic and autocratic at the same time! If you don't like the fact 5 million your citizens are Muslims, of which only a handful cover their face, then you should not have opened your doors to these people in the first place. You just have to live with the fact that Muslims are now a part of your society...thanks to your once liberal border policies. All in all, I oppose the face viel, but I also oppose the European ban because I know that the motivation to pass this law is not in the name of security, but in the name of bigotry

    Ari, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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