UKIP’s Burqa Rant Actually Splits Muslims

When now retired UKIP leader Paul Nuttall proposed a ban on the wearing of burqas in his party’s general election manifesto it was widely seen as a blatant bid to win votes by targeting the Muslim community.

Nuttall’s claim that the veil poses a security threat by hiding women’s faces was dismissed by many Muslim leaders as a crass attempt to appeal to anti-immigrant sentiment by “solving” a non-existent security problem.

But anger at the UKIP strategy has been tempered by the fact that many British Muslims would also like to see an end to such veils, sparking a conflict of opinion  within the Islamic community.

While relatively few Muslims sympathise with UKIP policies some Muslims, especially younger British-born followers of the faith, feel the proposed ban should be seen as an attack on an outdated, sexist and oppressive social custom rather  than an attack on Islam in general.

Eman Khattab, a financial journalism student at City, University of London supports a ban.

“I see absolutely no issues with it,” she said. “It is the right thing to do from the point of view of national security. As Muslims we need to spread the message of peace and co-operation.”

Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative peer and former minister, also believes that the face veil is not a part of a modern British landscape and is an obstacle to social integration. But she wants to see an end to the veil brought about voluntarily by Muslims rather than being imposed by government legislation or political scaremongering.

Zaira, a housewife in London who believes the burqa should not be worn in the UK, agrees that decisions about what to wear are a matter of personal choice.

Sarah, a 20-year-old from Islington, insists that her preference for occasionally wearing a burqa is nobody else’s business.

“It is not compulsory in my religion to cover my face but I do it out of personal choice,” she says. “I do not feel comfortable with the fact that somebody should dictate or order people on what one should, or one should not wear.” Several men who frequent the Islington Mosque said the proposed ban was an obvious bid to incite hate politics, noting that while the burqa is not compulsory or even a part of Islamic theology it is a part of Muslim social traditions.

 

by Rohma Tanzeel

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