Imperial College in London has emulated that reactionary little town in Belgium that banned the Islamic veil on the grounds of security – a policy also advocated in the Netherlands by right-wing politician Rita Verdonk. And the logic of Imperial College’s policy is of course to impose a general public ban. If Muslim women covering their faces are a threat to security on campus, are they not equally a threat in wider society?

See Polly Curtis’s report in the Guardian, 23 November 2005