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Minister rules out Britain face-veil ban
[Al Arabiya Latest] Britain was "very unlikely" to introduce a ban on Muslim women wearing face-covering veils despite widespread public support for such a move, Immigration Minister Damian Green said.He told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper that a ban similar to that approved in France, and which a poll on Friday showed was backed by 67 percent of Britons, was a "rather un-British thing to do". A fellow Conservative lawmaker had earlier said he refused to meet female constituents who wore the face veil and had proposed a law to ban the practice. However, Green said: "Telling people what they can and can't wear, if they're just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society." The immigration minister acknowledged there were occasions when it was important to be able to see someone's face. "But I think it's very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore," he said. This week French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban face-covering veils in public, in a bill which will go to the Senate for approval. Of France's 5 million Muslims, it is thought only about 2,000 women wear the full-length veil. Green added that unlike France, Britain was not "aggressively secular". Posted by: Fred 2010-07-19 |
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