LONDON, Oct 10: Britain's former foreign secretary Jack Straw found support on Tuesday from Prime Minister Tony Blair and controversial author Salman Rushdie for raising the issue of whether Muslim women should be veiled.
Mr Blair said that Mr Straw had been ‘perfectly sensible’ in addressing the topic while Salman Rushdie -- forced into hiding because of Muslim outrage at his 1988 book, ‘The Satanic Verses’, -- used more forthright language.
"He (Mr Straw) was expressing an important opinion which is that veils suck -- which they do," the British author, who was raised as a Muslim but is now an avowed atheist, told BBC radio.
Mr Straw -- still in the cabinet as leader of the House of Commons -- wrote in his local newspaper last week that he asks Muslim women to remove their veils when they visit his constituency office in Blackburn, England.
He said he feared the veil was a ‘visible demonstration of separateness’ in a country where ‘parallel communities’ are forming. He followed up by admitting that he would prefer it if Muslim women did not wear the veil at all.
But the comments, which drew support from some of Mr Straw's cabinet colleagues and opposition from others, have provoked a heated debate on civil liberties and the possible impact on Britain's 1.65-million-strong Muslim population.
Improving integration among the country's ethnic minority groups has been high on the political agenda since four British Muslims blew themselves up on London's public transport network last year, killing 52 others.
Muslim leaders have pinpointed a growing sense of alienation from other communities, particularly among the young, while some have seen Mr Straw's comments as only adding fuel to the fire.
Mr Blair told BBC television: "I don't think anyone is suggesting it's not a matter of personal choice in the end, for people to do what they want.
"What Jack Straw was saying was perfectly sensible, which is that if we want to break down the barriers between people and between different cultures and religions, then it is important these issues are raised and discussed."
The prime minister sidestepped a question about whether he would ask Muslim women to remove their veils but acknowledged that people felt very strongly about the issue.
Salman Rushdie said none of his three sisters or anyone from his ‘very largely female Muslim family’ or friends would have accepted wearing a veil.
"The battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women so, in that sense, I am completely on his side," he said. "I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women."
Rushdie was forced into hiding when Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini pronounced a death sentence on him following the publication of ‘The Satanic Verses’.
He is married to Padma Lakshmi, a Hindu Indian-American author, model and actress 24 years his junior.—AFP
