Former Blair government Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, now in private practice as a doctor, has asked Muslim patients to lift their veils when visiting his office. Straw wrote that the veil constitutes "a visible statement of separation and difference" and added that he "felt uncomfortable about talking with someone face-to-face who I could not see." Straw's statement is especially significant because he retains his seat in the House of Commons as an MP from Blackburn, and is Leader of the governing party in Commons. Perhaps more important is that Straw represents a constituency that includes lots of Muslim voters.
Straw touched a raw cultural nerve, and needless to say the usual gaggle of community "activists" ( a word that is becoming a synonym for "agitators") pounced on him for insensitivity, etc. But the veil does promote separation, which is why Cherie Blair's litigation on behalf of a Muslim family who wanted their child to wear traditional costume was so damaging 9discussed in a 3/16/06 LFTC posting. Blair's wife, it seems, can learn from his former Foreign Secretary about how to defend Western values.
I regret to admit that in 10 minutes rutting around the East Lancashire Telegraph website I couldn't pull up Straw's original column, posted this week. Oh, BTW, Jack, it is "whom" when using the objective case. As Rex Harrison lamented to Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, "Why Can't the English? (teach their children how to speak).
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