is cabinet minister Jack Straw stirring up a boiling frothing bubbling pot?

Question

of trouble? this is what they say on the website:
Cabinet Minister Jack Straw has said that he would prefer women not to wear full veils because they hinder communication.
He told the BBC that he asked Muslim women visiting him in his Blackburn surgery to remove their veils.
I'm a devout Christian, and i grew up in South Africa in much of a multi-cultural society, some of my best friends were moslem, i would have felt and today still would be most unhappy if i was wearing a symbol of the cross and asked to remove it cause it "causes segregation"...?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

superchip - in cape town, a lot of mixed race people shacked up together because people will be people...i'm one 'em... maybe you'd like to get an education to clear up the oil slick thats frying what was meant to be your brain honey?

j4mes - maybe you'd like to live on an island mate, in that way you're guaranteed to live out your nationalistic ideals with no interruptions from those damned immigrants? a pity most of the medics, doctos, dentists and teachers, are all..oh dear, foreign?

Answer 1

Well, I don't think ol' Jack's too bright. He just keeps putting his foot in it.

Answer 2

The Tories have been consistently in seek of "The Feelgood element" it saved away from them because it has thoroughly saved away from Neo exertions. i think the easy certainty is that politicians are thoroughly out of touch with the aspirations and struggles of elementary challenging working people. Brown pronounced on the weekend he will pay attention, Blair pronounced the comparable element. Blair did'nt and Brown wont. Jack Straw exchange right into a political firebrand yet like this manner of excellent form of fell under the spell of the Cult of Blair. Grumpy? wait until eventually thursday! yet regrettably it somewhat is the sole way the electorate can voice their discontent.

Answer 3

He,s just stating the bloody obvious, we all got to pull together and make some sacrifice because of the present situation, All decent muslims would go along with that.

Answer 4

Wot about this scenario- a woman in full veil and a man in a balaclava go into a bank. Who wil be asked to remove their face covering?????
He's only asking not telling - it is still a matter of choice.

Answer 5

South Africa a multi-cultural society?Since when?How many of your Muslim friends subscribed to apartheid?All South Africans are in self-denial about that.They call themselves Christians but they're full of crap.

Answer 6

its only a question not a request .y go off on one?whats wrong nowadays is that u cant ask a simple question without causing a backlash.dont forget this is a muliculture if u dont ask the question u wont find the answer.not everybody knows .

Answer 7

No. I hate Jack "stoat-the-baw" Straw, but I agree with him on this one, 100%. It is the moslems who are stirring the shite, as usual. That could be Bin Laden himself behind that veil, you know!

Answer 8

don't be stupid, a cross doesn't cover your face.Does anyone think its right that muslim women should be allowed to drive cars when all you can see is a slit for their eyes. How anyone can take offence at jack straws comment is beyond me. how would a muslim woman feel if they went to talk to jack straw and he had his face covered?

Answer 9

Dear Wisdom,

Jack Straw is a fool, and his behaviour was both selfish and reckless. What he did was try to excite veiled (no pun intended) antagonism towards Islam in Britain in order to drum up support for himself in his bid for deputy PM - trying to steal some of the limelight from John Reid, in other words. It's dishonest politickeering, no more and no less.

Of course, Jack Straw did not want it to look too obviously like politickeering, which is why he tried to thinly disguise his statement as an innocuous exposition of personal feeling, a mild defence of common-sense neighbourly values: "all I'm saying is it's nicer for communication", etc. But if it really was an innocent statement meant to cause no political controversy, he would not have defended it so adamantly later. Mr Straw has seen his Muslim constituents for years, so it is very telling that he made this comment so publicly, and precisely at a time of major reorganisation of the Labour Party.

So yes, I believe Jack Straw is stirring up a pot of trouble, purely for personal political gain. This is despicable behaviour in any circumstance, but in the troubled times we live in, it is especially irresponsible. One might remember that the same sort of demagoguery about veil-wearing in France caused a hugely divisive controversy there, and it is simply idiotic to arouse the same sort of inflammatory reaction across the Channel now, when less than a month ago a perfectly benign statement made by the Pope about Muslims sparked riots all over the world (and resulted in at least one murder). People need to remember that beyond all these trite controversies about religion and culture, real lives are at stake.

In the mid-sixties Terence O'Neill (then first minister of Northern Ireland) made a prophetic speech to warn his constituents about the dangerous direction the province was taking - this was only a couple of years before the Troubles flared up for good, causing thousands of deaths over a 30-year period. O'Neill said, "the ugly forces of sectarianism have been winked at by too many who should know better". Jack Straw, with his own ill-advised winking, would do well to heed this advice and find less unsavoury means of political self-promotion from now on.

In the meantime, the best thing the British public can do is ignore Mr Straw's comments and let his clumsy attempt at partisan rabble-rousing fall bloodlessly to the floor. The whole argument about veil-wearing is a stupid dud in any case, and invoked only to spark ill-natured heckling, not genuine debate. Let people wear veils if they want to. Indeed Jack Straw would never have dared to make that statement if the minority in question had been an obscure East African tribe, for instance - or orthodox Jews, for that matter, whose women have also been known to cover part of their face. Accusations of racism and cultural insensitivity would have been flung at his teeth quickly and painfully.

But in the case of Islam, as too many in Britain (just as in the rest of the Western world) blithely equate the religion itself to violence, terrorism and illegal immigration, Straw is seeking to exploit that sordid double-standard, which sees the light in the minds of imbeciles and dares not raise its ugly head except in the safe anonymousness of Internet forums. This sort of pandering is dangerous, and damaging to liberal democracy.

Yours sincerely,

Answer 10

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw’s comment about the request of asking Muslim women to take the veil off seems to be heating up. Jack Straw wouldn’t budge but instead extended his request to not just the Muslim women within his own constituency who come to meet him but instead prefer to see Muslim across the country to take their veil off. This has the support of over 95% of British public. I reckon it would be a wonderful idea to ban Muslim from their traditional cloth & equally ban Sikh from wearing turban. Such a ban would bring them a step closer to being seen themselves as British first & THEN a member of whatsoever religion they worship.

If the person hiding her face behind a veil feels less comfortable or indeed less confident in disclosing her “face” to a stranger, then I wonder how she would be able to establish a smooth flow of conversation. It’s just beyond me.

Firstly, they choose to LIVE in Britain & hence it’s all THEIR responsibility to work towards integrating them within British society & NOT the vice versa. Integration is NOT an easy thing but for sure NOT impossible. Such a thing requires certain COMPROMISE, which can ONLY be attained at certain PRICE, which again requires having certain ADJUSTMENT on certain principle, the way of life, culture that they're so accustomed with. They LEFT their country to be a part of British society.

Surely, it's just NOT enough to have your BODY in Britain but heart & mind in Bangladesh?

You CANNOT be British when you wish to have:

>> free health care
>> free education
>> social security
>> claim to get taken care by & having support of British government, when caught-up in war-torn region

but DO NOT see yourself as British in other aspects of life, such as lack of ability to speak English or lack of respect for British way of life i.e. focusing more & finger-pointing about certain bad issues within the British society such as teenage pregnancy, binge-drinking, sexual promiscuity, etc.

Surely, there are fair share of things that could be perceived as rather positive about British society i.e. the “true” democracy, where people could have their say in whatsoever way they wish, people being allowed to live a life in whatsoever way they prefer, culture of respect, tolerance, manners & etiquette.

Seems like most of these Muslims fancy focusing ONLY at the negative aspects of our society. Is it a case of seeing glass as half EMPTY as opposed to the other way round?

People riding bike are expected to take their helmets off when entering Banks, Building Society, etc. or else it could raise suspicion. Similarly, recently Britain’s biggest shopping centre Bluewater forbidden people wearing hooded tops, as it could intimidate others.

Islam has NO such strict requirement of people HAVING to wearing veil covering their face but it’s a “personal choice” of women (as it’s often bragged about the same women saying their religion does not FORCE them to do so but they merely do so by their own personal choice) & if it’s personal choice, such a choice is rather rude when speaking to someone. It’s like someone speaking to me but having their eyes elsewhere without seeing me straight in my eyes. Surely, communication depends on visual as well as audio perception, I’d have thought. After all, if that wasn’t the case, there wouldn’t be a difference between customer dealing with call centre staff or having a personal face-to-face conversation with someone within their local branch.

Generally speaking, there are 2 ways of doing things. Sadly in case of Muslims, it’s ONLY one way i.e. THEIR way.

I’m terribly sorry to be highly critical about such an issues that’s often perceived as rather “sensitive” but such individuals raises my heckle for sure. For God sake, this is Britain NOT Beirut or Bangladesh.

I DO NOT need shoddy government forcing me to accustom myself & take pride in so-called “multi-culture” society. Thank you very much but if I fancy a change from my culture then I could have a taste of “multi” culture by spending £500 flying to:

>> India, to witness their culture of being “ill-manners, loud & curry-muncher”
>> Pakistan, to witness their culture of “women suppressing”
>> Bangladesh, to witness their culture of “inter & force marriages”
>> China, to witness their culture of “gagging” Joe Public
>> America, to witness their culture of “patriotism”
>> Jamaica, to witness their culture of “mugging & drugging”
>> France, to witness their culture of “rudeness & moustache”
>> Saudi Arabia, to witness their culture of “stoning women to death” in public

I don’t need multi-culture; I ONLY want one culture i.e. BRITISH culture, a culture of respect, tolerance, freedom, true democracy.

I’m NOT racist ……. just REALISTIC !!!