Row intensifies over Johnson’s comments on face veils
Davidson leads fresh criticism but Tories are accused of ‘siding with minority’
Muslim women who wear burqas should be defended in the same way as Christians who wear a crucifix, a senior Conservative said on Wednesday, amid a growing row over Boris Johnson’s comments on face veils.
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said debate over burqas and crosses was “the same argument but in a different faith” and that the former foreign secretary’s remarks were offensive. Her comments came as Jeremy Wright, the Culture Secretary, said it was wrong to label face veils “oppressive”. The Conservatives, however, were accused of losing touch with voters as a poll showed 60 per cent of Britons think burqas should be banned in public places.
A former deputy mayor of London of Pakistani descent said the Tory leadership was siding with “a minority fringe of Islamists” who labelled any criticism of Islamic practice as Islamophobia, while another prominent Muslim said the burqa “deserves to be ridiculed”.
There were also claims that the burqa row was being used as a proxy for Remain-supporting MPs to attack Johnson in an attempt to kill off his leadership ambitions, after Dominic Grieve, an arch-Europhile, said he would quit the party if Johnson ever became leader. And as Lord Shaikh, the Muslim Conservative peer, called for “severe action” against Johnson, Lord Pickles, the Remain-supporting former communities secretary, said he had been given more “slack” than other Tories would be. However, there were accusations of hypocrisy after it emerged that some of Johnson’s critics had made disparaging comments about the wearing of burqas in the past.
Johnson said burqas were “oppressive” and made women look like “bank robbers” or “letter boxes” in his column for The Daily Telegraph on Monday, in which he argued against a ban on wearing them. The prime minister told him to apologise, but he made it clear on Tuesday that he did not feel any need to do so. He made no further comment on the matter yesterday. Arguments over Johnson’s choice of language gave way to a wider debate on Wednesday over whether UK should follow France, Denmark and Belgium in banning burkas in public.
Some Muslims argue that the Quran requires women to dress modestly and cover their heads and bodies, but opponents of the burqa say there is no specific requirement in Islamic texts for women to wear them, and accuse Muslim men of forcing women to cover themselves from head to toe.