On the one hand, our civic leaders constantly trumpet their absolute commitment to the goals of equality and tolerance, especially for previously disadvantaged groups like women and gays.
On the other hand, they become utterly supine in the face of a hardline Muslim ideology that promotes bigotry, segregation and misogyny. The disastrous consequences of such institutionalised cowardice can be seen all around us. As the creeping Islamification of our society accelerates, our national identity is disappearing. Honour killings, and forced marriages, which would have been unthinkable 30 years ago, have now become features of modern Britain….
There is no more powerful symbol of the warped, contradictory values of our times than the rise of the burkha…. The burkha is rightly synonymous with medieval barbarity and theocratic totalitarianism. The urge to cover up women is the same impulse that stones them to death for adultery….
“In Europe … there is increasing pressure to outlaw this wretched instrument of subjugation. Belgium has already banned the burkha in public places, while Spain and the Netherlands are considering doing so. And this week the French Assembly in Paris voted overwhelming for a ban on wearing the full-face veil in public. Even the French Communists, normally in the vanguard of anti-western political correctness, supported the move.
Yet the political establishment here in Britain shares none of this indignation, despite all opinion polls showing that the vast majority of the public are in favour of such a ban. Like capital punishment or a freeze on immigration, this is not even seen as a polite subject for debate amongst the metropolitan elite.
There is no chance of any of the major parties taking up the cause. Just one backbench MP, the admirable Tory Philip Hollobone, has proposed legislation to outlaw the full veil but, without any real support in Parliament, his effort is doomed. That shows how deeply our politicians are in thrall to militant Islam.
Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express, 15 July 2010