Cover-up...

Heard a few people on the radio this morning discussing Boris Johnson’s comments about Muslim women wearing the burqua. Putting to one side the argument that everything Boris says seems to be about Boris, and his increasingly unlikely bid for the Tory leadership, I can’t say I disagree with him. I feel, first, that women can wear what they want, where they want, when they want. And, second, that I find the sight of women disappearing into cloth bags deeply disturbing. While I don’t want the burqua banned, I want to be able to air my opinion about this most divisive of religious uniforms.

Lord Sheikh, the founder of the Conservative Muslim Forum, wants Boris to be sacked, and insists that “all religious belief should be respected”. This insistence is quite wrong. I do not have to respect other people’s religious beliefs, especially beliefs as problematic as those of Islam. And anyone who thinks that’s unfair might usefully spend a few hours reading the Koran from cover to cover: a tedious but eye-opening task

Whenever I see a woman wearing the burka or niquab, I have mixed feelings. It pains me to see a women wearing a costume which, to me, is such a potent symbol of oppression and subjugation. Yet if a woman says that it is her choice to wear the veil, freely and without coercion, I am bound to listen and take note. If she goes further, insisting that the veil “empowers” her (rather than, say, making her look like somebody’s property), I will nod in acknowledgement, if not agreement. I can’t pretend to understand the custom, and I probably never will. What I do understand is that Islam is a religion that requires total submission to God - that’s what the word ‘Islam’ means - yet that doesn’t require men to cover their faces, but only women…

Lowther Hall, licensed today...