THE INDEPENDENT: 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."
Mr Hollobone also railed against Turkey's potential membership of the European Union. With David Cameron expected to visit the country this summer to endorse its attempt to join the EU, Mr Hollobone warned that Turkish membership would be "a disaster" because EU rules allowing free movement would encourage many Turks to move to Britain. "I could anticipate hundreds of thousands, if not more than one million, Turks heading our way. I am sure that the Turkish people are lovely people, but Britain is full up. We cannot cope with another mass wave of immigration."
Mr Hollobone is to bring in a Private Member's Bill to ban women wearing the burka or niqab in public and hopes that the French parliament's decision this week to ban the wearing in public of the full-face veil will tip the balance in favour of similar bans in other European nations. "France is a large country, widely respected around the world. People will quite rightly sit up and take notice."
Mr Hollobone's Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill is due to have its second reading on 3 December but, as it lacks government backing, is likely to run out of parliamentary time.
"It is an issue that is not going to go away," he said. "Sadly, the House of Commons is likely to prove itself out of touch with public opinion." >>> Andrew Grice, Political Editor | Saturday, July 17, 2010
THE INDEPENDENT: Leading article: This burka ban does not translate >>> | Saturday, July 17, 2010
