Islamophobia Watch

"A city with one of the country’s largest Muslim populations is to ask schools to ban veils in the classroom. Education leaders yesterday confirmed that they are drawing up guidelines stating that both teachers and pupils must not wear them during lessons. The school chiefs claim that veils – called niqabs – could stop teachers identifying troublesome children. They also fear that they could even lead to health and safety problems in Bradford, where around 15 per cent of the 470,000 population are Muslim.... The move comes after a Daily Express telephone poll in which more than 99 per cent of readers supported the call for Britain to follow the lead of many Muslim countries, including Turkey and Egypt, and ban the veil."

Daily Express, 24 October 2006