CARWYN IN BLAST AT ‘RACIST’ BURKA COMMENTS:
FIRST Minister Carwyn Jones has accused former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Ukip Assembly leader Gareth Bennett of “attacking” Muslim women for political advantage.
The Welsh Labour leader issued a statement as controversy continues over comments the two men have made about burkas.
Mr Johnson last week used a newspaper column to say it was “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes” and described women wearing the veil as resembling “a bank robber”.
Mr Bennett, who last week was elected to lead Ukip in the Assembly, later described women wearing the veil as “apparitions of pre-medieval culture” on ITV Wales on Sunday.
Warning of the “dangerous” consequences of their comments, Mr Jones said: “We have to ask why Gareth Bennett and Boris Johnson are attacking Muslim women.
“It is clear to me that they are doing this solely to raise their own profile, to gain political advantage. But, despite their purely selfish motivations, their language has a broader, dangerous impact – it results in Muslim women being abused in the street. It legitimises xenophobic conversation and, ultimately, leads to further division and mistrust. This benefits nobody except Bennett and Johnson.”
He continued: “The language they are using is dangerously irresponsible. It is racist.
“This is not how elected politicians in positions of responsibility should behave. The Welsh Government will not be silent in the face of these grim provocations. We will redouble our efforts to create cohesive communities, to help people feel safe, and not just to tolerate – but to celebrate diversity.”
Both Prime Minister Theresa May and Conservative chairman Brandon Lewis have pushed Mr Johnson to apologise.
Mr Bennett, who last week was elected to lead Ukip in the Assembly, ignited further controversy when he described women wearing the veil as “apparitions of pre-medieval culture”.
Stating that when in Cardiff he could feel like he was in Saudi Arabia, he said: “It’s certainly not a pleasant feeling for many people in Britain, who are British and regard themselves as having British values, to be confronted by these apparitions which seem to be of some kind of pre-medieval culture.”
Mr Bennett responded to the First Minister’s comments yesterday, saying: “There’s a dangerous ideology behind the wearing of these garments and I agree with Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali’s comments this morning [Monday], where he said that Islamists are weaponising the burka and niqab to impose their own version of radical Islam on communities.
“Recent opinion polls show that a majority of British people actually aren’t comfortable with the burka and niqab being worn, and I won’t be closed down by minority groups or a hypocritical Left seeking their own political gain by trying to stifle free speech.”