Boris Johnson's Latest 'Gaff'

We are more liberal here than in some other European countries.
However, there are certain situations and places where a burka is not and should not be allowed to be worn, particularly by staff in a school, in hospitals, witnesses in court where facial expressions need to be seen as they are part of communication.

Maybe he doesn't but I do. (Just saying)!

To Elrel

muffin - well explained. There's so much more to this than meets the eye.

Boris is just saying what a lot of people think but don't iterate in public. Then the 'Holier than Thou's' have a field day. When did we get to be so precious? Get a life.
'

I'll leave the indignation to Muslims.
Not my Burka, not my problem.
Hopefully this means we'll see no more threads about tattoos, cold shoulder tops, and all the other things women choose to wear.

oops, I just criticised gypsy tops on another thread

Seems we’re all getting too sensitive about certain issues and too mealy-mouthed when it comes to minority groups. Time for some plain speaking I think.

Of course ethnicity should be respected and accepted but it seems to me lately that with this and the anti-semitism row some groups are pushing their agenda in a way that might backfire.

Ah, it wasn't aimed at you, or anyone particularly.
It just riles me when anyone else is fair game to criticise, but not Muslims.
It isn't a slur on their religion or their choice. It isn't racist.
They just do look like letter boxes.

Maybe you're not offended 'lyndiloo' because you're a white middle class Daily Mail reader! His comment was racist and designed to further incite islamophobia

BRIGGI668 I applaud you and agree with you wholeheartedly ?

Plenty of Muslim women who do not, and would not, wear the Niqab. In fact, in this country the majority don’t and wouldn’t.

Sorry icanhandthemback but he did

I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes .....
If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber then ditto
The rights and wrongs of veil/burka/niqab wearing are not the issue, it is Johnson’s deliberately insulting and inflammatory language which is.
The many posts objecting to veil/niqab/burka wearing on this thread alone prove my point.

I think its atrocious that Boris has said these things, in whatever context.
There again, I also thought the trump blimp was foul too.
They're like a bunch of unruly children.

And if anybody thinks that Johnson made a gaffe or a throwaway silly comment they clearly know nothing about writing a weekly column or indeed about its highly educated writer. No approbation intended by that description.
It is all carefully calculated.

MissAdventure you say you think it was atrocious of Johnson to make that remark? (Today 16.50)
But according to you
They just do look like letter boxes (16.35)

Precisely.
I'm only missadventure.
He is Boris Johnson.

Has anyone mentioned how difficult it is for us hard of hearing people to understand unless we can see the lips moving? I think it is very inconsiderate of anyone to cover their face if they wish to have a conversation. Wear what you like, but think first whether it will inconvenience others.

Maybe you're not offended 'lyndiloo' because you're a white middle class Daily Mail reader!

You see, I think attitudes like this (above)are also a problem. People are demonised because they are middle class and white! Try slagging off other areas of society and watch the outcry!

We are terrified to be white middle, class and to agree that criticism of some groups IS valid!

It's so very right-on not to be offended and if you are, well don't voice those opinions whatever you do, because - OMG, you'll be criticised for being white, middle class and literate! (Reading the Daily Mail is a very tired and over used slur.)

I am extremely uncomfortable when confronted by women with their faces covered with their eyes the only part of them visible.

It is not appropriate in a liberal western society that women should be faceless. Religious, patriarchal intolerance that demands women do not show themselves to men has no place in a forward-looking western society that values equality of the sexes. We use our faces to denote empathy, understanding, grief - the whole gamut of emotions. How do we communicate fully with a woman covered from head to toe in cloth?

We quite rightly abhor those who wear balaclavas for nefarious purposes - try walking around covered up like that if you are a white, middle class female, and as for going into a bank or government office - forget it!

Johnson has started a discussion which needs to be had. As unusual he employs his 'red rag to a bull tactics' but when you sweep issues that concern the public under the carpet, resentment festers.

The point about racism, which some seem to have failed to comprehend, is it is about the more dominant & powerful group, in this country white British, threatening, denigrating or undermining a minority group. What a very few Muslim women choose to wear in this country is of minor importance when we look at the context of the political mess we are in as a country 're Brexit and the increase in fascism and right wing extremes. Johnson chose very carefully when he made that comment. He wants the support of the right wing/ UKIPPERS to get him into power. He is no fool. Most people who get indignant have probably never spoken to a Muslim woman wearing a veil but they hate her nevertheless.

I live in a multicultural area. When out shopping, I usually see 1 or 2 young women wearing the veil.

But every time a public figure talks about the veil, the numbers I see out and about increase. It is as if they want to show solidarity with each other.

Looks like if we want women to stop wearing it, we are best just ignoring the subject, and maybe the custom will die out.

I certainly don't hate Muslim women.
Why would I?
They've done nothing to me.

Someone earlier asked a very important question along the lines of how do the children recognise their own mother at the school gates??!!! So, just how do they?

PECS
I would contest that no one hates the Burka'd woman.
Having lived in the Middle East where this garb originates. I have had to refuse to interview veiled women who were not prepared to remove their veil in the workplace.

The majority of girls who wear the face cover in the UK do so exactly as a provocative statement. True followers of Islam know that only modest dress is called for. It is a uniform, just as Goths wear their black clothes and the Steam Punkers wear theirs. We should not allow the veil, but if they want to wear the Abaya and Shaila then that would be their choice.

JenniferEccles
They call their name so recognise their voice