Veiled News

"Muslim leaders rally round Straw", reports the Guardian in a totally misleading headline, following Jack Straws recent comments on veiled Muslim women. In fact, the Guardian's own report makes it clear that Islamic leaders in Straw's constituency did not so much rally round as say nothing in public, one way or the other. The rabble is restless. A demonstration is planned for today outside, Straw's constituency surgery,

...but not on the scale of an earlier planned protest of more than 8,000 people which was abandoned because police told them they were unable to manage more than 500 demonstrators.

Meanwhile, the case of the Yorkshire teaching assistant suspended for refusing to remove her veil in the classroom rumbles on with the school's decision being supported by leading muslims. According to the Times,

The suspension was supported by Shahid Malik, the local Labour MP, local Muslim councillors and the Muslim Council of Britain, all of whom agreed that Muslim women were not required by their religion to cover their heads, let alone their mouths, in the presence of pre-adolescent children.

Tags: Straw, multi-culturalism