Champion of UK burka ban declares war on veil-wearing constituents

[IndianaGreen]

Source: The Independent (UK)


Hollobone said the vast majority of Muslim women wore
dress allowing people to see their face and claimed no
Islamic scholars or clerics said wearing the burka or niqab
was a religious requirement.

Champion of UK burka ban declares war on veil-wearing constituents

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor

Saturday, 17 July 2010

A Conservative MP says he will refuse to hold meetings with Muslim women wearing full Islamic dress at his constituency surgery unless they lift their face veil.

Last night Muslim groups condemned Philip Hollobone and accused him of failing in his duty as an MP.

In an interview with The Independent, the Kettering MP said: "I would ask her to remove her veil. 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. I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter."

He said the vast majority of Muslim women wore dress allowing people to see their face and claimed no Islamic scholars or clerics said wearing the burka or niqab was a religious requirement. "It is not a necessity," he said.

"I just take what I regard as a common sense view. If you want to engage in normal, daily, interactive dialogue with your fellow human beings, you can only really do this properly by seeing each other's face.

"Seventy-five per cent of the usual communication between two human beings is done with personal experience. God gave us faces to be expressive. It is not just the words we utter but whether we are smiling, sad, angry or frustrated. You don't get any of that if your face is covered."


Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/champion-of-uk-burka-ban-declares-war-on-veilwearing-constituents-2028669.html

[msongs]

1. so does he have to follow every law of islam to have islamic patients? hmmm nt

[Boudica the Lyoness]

6. No patients

A political surgery (in British politics) or clinic is a term used to describe a series of one-to-one meetings a Member of Parliament (MP) may have with his or her constituents, at which a constituent may raise issues of local concern and seek the intervention of their MP.

[Moonwalk]

2. Why not go the other way? Every time he gets a woman in a Burka--

--he can put on a mask and cover his face. I mean, he seems to be implying that she's hiding her feeling from him and that's not fair. But it'd be fair if he was hiding his feeling from her, too, right? Or am I missing the point?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. corrected it: "Champion of UK burka ban declares war on veil-wearing constituents male relatives"

[Posteritatis]

4. "Champion of UK burka ban campaigns to keep women under house arrest." (nt)

[CHIMO]

5. Santa Claus

No longer may receive treatment in the UK!

[Moonwalk]

8. Because his beard covers up his face?

[CHIMO]

10. Yes.

A good beard may cover everything below the cheek bone.

So they should bring in some calipers to measure the portion of the face that might be covered by beards.

One may have approved governmental facial monitors, whether ones' beard exceed the 95% limit. It would probably reduce unemployment.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Try wearing a ski mask on the streets of London...

[Violet_Crumble]

11. I covered my face with a scarf when I was there and had no problems...

It was far too cold for me the day I was wandering round.

So if yr trying to make out that the attention given to the burqa is solely because there's an intolerance of anyone covering their faces, then yr wrong. Also, for all those who insist faces must be uncovered, when are you going to start complaining about men with beards getting away with covering their faces?

[w4rma]

9. Good for him. Burkas are sexist against women. (nt)

[Violet_Crumble]

12. No, men trying to force women not to wear something are sexist...

They're every bit as sexist as any man who tries to force a woman to wear something. Burqas being inanimate objects aren't sexist...

[defendandprotect]

13. When MEN as well as women feel obliged to be "veiled" for their religion . . .

let's see how that goes -- !!

Until then, let's acknowledge this is a religious prejudice vs women and

an oppression of women which islates them from normal interactions in society --

[Name removed]

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