British Debate Over Religious Veils Could Trigger Riots, Watchdog Says
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LONDON — The heated debate over veils that cover the faces of some British Islamic women is growing ugly and could trigger riots, the head of Britain’s race relations watchdog warned on yesterday.
Britons are becoming increasingly polarized along racial and religious lines, and if they don’t talk respectfully about their differences, tensions could fuel unrest, Commission for Racial Equality chairman Trevor Phillips wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper.
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television, he said he didn’t want Britain to suffer the kind of violence that exploded in the deprived suburbs of Paris a year ago, when disaffected young people, many from immigrant backgrounds, rioted for three weeks.
He warned also that a repeat could occur of the rioting in several northern English towns in 2001 caused by racial tensions between white and mainly Islamic south Asian youths.
“Only this time the conflict would be much worse,” Mr. Phillips wrote in the Times.
The secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said some violent attacks already have occurred against Muslims in the country. He said some women’s veils have been forcibly pulled off, mosques set on fire, and Muslims beaten by gangs of men.
The debate over veils was set off earlier this month when the current leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, who is a former foreign secretary, said Islamic women visiting his office should remove their veils. An Islamic teaching assistant in northern England was then suspended from her job for refusing to remove a black veil that left only her eyes visible.
The issue touches on growing anxieties about Britain’s diversity and the alienation of young British Muslims like those who carried out suicide bombings on London’s transit system last year, killing themselves and 52 commuters.
Last week, Prime Minister Blair said the country needed to talk about how minority communities could better integrate into the wider society while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness. He called the veil “a mark of separation.”
