Blair No. 2 spurns Straw veil call

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LONDON, England -- Britain's deputy prime minister John Prescott has rejected an appeal by cabinet colleague Jack Straw for Muslim women to remove their veils.

"I think a woman that wants to wear the veil, why shouldn't she? It's her choice," John Prescott said.

Prescott said that he would not follow Straw's example and ask women visiting him to remove her veil.

"It is a cultural difference but it is her choice," he told BBC TV. "If somebody comes into my constituency, whether they are wearing a skull cap or wearing a turban or very dark glasses, I'm not going to ask them to remove it. I think you can communicate with them."

Prescott said that Straw had been right to raise the issue.

But he voiced concern that it could also lead to "considerable difficulties" in terms of community relations.

"I think this debate does open it up -- thank goodness Jack has done that," he said. "But I fear sometimes people might use it in a more prejudiced way and I am concerned it may damage relations rather than improve them. Let's have the debate but the argument can go either way."

Prescott was speaking after British newspapers backed Straw after the political storm sparked by his remarks that veils worn by Muslim women harmed community relations.

Former foreign secretary Straw wrote in his local newspaper that a veil was "a visible statement of separation and difference" and that he was more comfortable dealing with female visitors to his local political office with their faces uncovered.

Most UK dailies turned their leading articles Saturday to the nationwide debate -- and subsequent protests -- triggered by Straw, now in charge of government business in the House of Commons.

The issue of integrating Britain's 1.65 million Muslims has returned to the UK political agenda in recent weeks, a year after the deadly July 2005 London bombings, perpetrated by British Islamic extremists.

Under the headline "Ban the Veil," the Daily Express reported that "concerned Britons" had given massive backing to calls for Muslim women to ditch the veil.

The paper said that of around 10,000 readers who phoned or texted to its own survey, 97 percent of respondents wanted a ban on the veil to "help safeguard racial harmony."

Said Britain's No. 1 selling newspaper, The Sun: "The knee-jerk anger directed at Jack Straw by a section of the Muslim community is offensive. There is not a racist, Islamophobic bone in his body.

"His constructive observations about veils have sparked an absurd overreaction from some Muslims for whom even the mildest criticism of any aspect of their religion amounts to a declaration of war."

The Daily Telegraph said Straw had "touched a raw nerve" by focusing on such an emblematic symbol of Muslim life but that "integration can't be achieved behind the veil."

In CNN.com's own Quickvote on the subject, 78 percent said "yes" to the question: "Is Jack Straw right to say the wearing of veils by Muslim women makes community relations more difficult?"

After Straw's remarks became public, Muslim leaders in Straw's Blackburn constituency in northwest England said many Muslim women would find his comments "offensive and disturbing." (Full story)

The Lancashire Council of Mosques said the Commons leader had "misunderstood" the issue and it was "deeply concerned" by his "very insensitive and unwise" statement.

Opposition politicians rounded on his comments. Conservative policy director Oliver Letwin said it would be a "dangerous doctrine" to instruct people how to dress, while Liberal Democrat chairman Simon Hughes described the remarks as "insensitive and surprising."

Prime Minister Tony Blair's office at No. 10 Downing Street said that Straw was expressing a private view.

Your views

CNN's I-Report would like to hear your comments on this issue. One reader, George Lawrence of Cherokee Village, Arizona, says: The saying of "when in Rome do as the Romans do" should apply in this case. While this type of dress, covering ones face, is an acceptable custom in their country it certainly isn't, and should not be, acceptable in other countries. Do these people not understand that the custom of many other countries is not to cover ones face up during a meeting or during normal communications with others? I believe that too much political correctness is being place on silly issues like this.

Rashid Ibrahim, from Baltimore in the American state of Maryland, said: "One has to consider the wisdom behind the veil for women. The wisdom behind the veil is for the protection of the woman. It is not oppressive, rather, it is empowering. In a world rampant with sexuality and nakedness, it is refreshing to see a veiled woman with a strong statement about her body: judge her by the contents of her mind, not her body. It is also sign of obedience to the Almighty Allah."

But another reader, Jackie Lewis, from Harrow in the United Kingdom, said: "I have to agree with Jack Straw's comments on the Islamic veil.

"I am personally offended to see any woman covered up in the 21st century. I often see them wearing the full burka in Harrow, yet they are always accompanied by men in baseball caps, jeans and trainers. As with a lot of faiths there are always double standards between the sexes."

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