LONDON, Oct 17: Two European leaders separately voiced concern at the Muslim veil on Tuesday, with Britain’s Tony Blair calling it a ‘mark of separation’ and Italy’s Romano Prodi saying it should not be used to hide behind.
Both leaders said the wearing of full veils presented difficulties for their nations with Muslim communities and immigrants needing to integrate into Western societies.
“It is a mark of separation and that’s why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable,” Prime Minister Tony Blair said when asked his opinion on the veil, which has become a hot topic in Britain in recent weeks.
Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said earlier this month he asked Muslim women in his constituency to remove their veils when they come to see him. And a Muslim teaching assistant was suspended over her refusal to remove a veil which left only her eyes visible.
In Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said it was a matter of common sense that people show their faces in public.
“You can’t cover your face. If you have a veil, fine, but you must be seen,” Mr Prodi said. “This is common sense I think, it is important for our society. It is not how you dress but if you are hidden or not.”
The question of whether Europe is doing enough to integrate Muslims into society has been urgently addressed by governments across the continent since the London attacks of July 2005 when British-born Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people.
DEMONISATION: But some in the Muslim community have complained of increasing ‘Islamophobia’.
“What is happening, especially in the last few months, has been a barrage of demonisation of the Muslim community to such an extent that the community is now scared and the whole community feels vulnerable,” said Muhammad Abdul Bari, a leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, the country’s largest Islamic group.
The “niqab” is a veil worn by women in many Muslim societies which usually covers the whole face except the eyes.
Neither Britain nor Italy restrict the wearing of the veil, but Italy has in the past had laws against covering the face in public as an anti-terrorism measure and some politicians have called for this rule to be enforced against veiled Muslim women.
In France a law bans ‘conspicuous symbols’ of faith such as Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses, from schools.
Mr Blair said he did not want to ban the veil. “I’m not saying anyone should be forced to do anything,” he told his monthly news conference.
“No one wants to say that people don’t have the right to do it, that’s to take it too far, but I think we do need to confront this issue about how we integrate people properly with our society and all the evidence is when people do integrate more they achieve more as well.”—Reuters
