UK being urged to ban veils - common sense for a change coming out of Britain

The UK government is being urged to consider banning Muslim girls from wearing veils in public places such as schools, a Lib Dem Home Office minister has said.

Jeremy Browne said he was "uneasy" about restricting freedoms, but urged a national debate on the state's role in stopping veils being imposed on girls.

Typically a Muslim group said it was "disgusted" by the minister's call. Well that was predictable wasn't it?

'Very cautious'

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mr Browne suggested action might be needed to protect the freedom of choice for Muslim girls too young to decide for themselves whether they wanted to wear the veil.

Many rightly see the veil as a symbol of oppression against woman and there has been a growing debate in the UK in banning this medieval garment of make domination.

"I think this is a good topic for national debate. People of liberal instincts will have competing notions of how to protect and promote freedom of choice," Mr Browne said.

"But there is genuine debate about whether girls should feel a compulsion to wear a veil when society deems children to be unable to express personal choices about other areas like buying alcohol, smoking or getting married."

Very true indeed and refreshing to hear common sense for a change coming out of the UK.

He added: "We should be very cautious about imposing religious conformity on a society which has always valued freedom of expression."

Speaking on Sunday at the Lib Dem party conference in Glasgow - before the article was published - Mr Browne said the UK had a "proud record" in the country of defending freedom of religious choice and the rights of religious minorities but the state also had a role in protecting peoples' individual liberty.

'Disgusted'

Also Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative MP for Totnes, said she was disgustedthat women's  rights were being put second place to political correctness and full-length burkas had "nothing to do with freedom" and prevented some women from "participating fully & equally in society" while the niqab veil - which almost entirely covers the face - made its wearers "invisible".

In a series of messages on Twitter, she denied "pandering" to anyone on the issue and suggested politicians who were afraid to talk about the matter risked "selling out women's rights".

Very very true indeed.

"Feminists should be allowed to say that they find the niqab deeply offensive without being accused of being bigoted or islamophobic."

But predictably Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation - a group that works with young Muslims in the UK and a group that has been criticised in the past for having extremist ties said he was "disgusted" by Mr Browne's call.

"This is another example of the double standards that are applied to Muslims in our country by some politicians.

"Whatever one's religion they should be free to practise it according to their own choices and any attempt by the government to ban Muslim women will be strongly resisted by the Muslim community."

Well this MALE chauvinist is very contradictory because its clear that the majority of women in the Muslim community ARE NOT free to practice anything 'according to their choices'