Veil is 'a direct and explicit criticism of our Western values'
Monday, June 29, 2009 "Hats off (or should that be chapeaux off?) to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for calling for a ban on the burkha in France.... No British politician would be brave enough to do what Sarkozy did or to follow through with what will almost certainly be a nation-wide ban on the burkha. Our politicians are, unlike our European amis, too cowed by political correctness and misguided multiculturalism to speak out on such a difficult topic and risk offending the two-million-strong Muslim population.
"Except the burkha isn't a Muslim issue. It's a British issue. It doesn't just demean the woman who wears it, it also demeans the men and women who have to see her wearing it.... The idea of a ban is certainly not preposterous.... As Sarkozy pointed out the burkha is a political, not a religious, statement.... It is a direct and explicit criticism of our Western values and belief in the equality of men and women."
Julia Hartley-Brewer in the Daily Express, 29 June 2009