Boris Johnson has sparked anger by claiming that women wearing burkas look like letter boxes and bank robbers. His comments have been furiously condemned by Muslim leaders and Labour, with MP David Lammy branding him a ‘pound-shop Donald Trump’. The former foreign secretary made the inflammatory comments in his Daily Telegraph column.
However, he insisted that the burka and other face-covering veils should not be banned in public. Last week, Denmark followed France, Germany, Austria and Belgium in banning the burka and niqab. Mr Johnson said that schools and universities should expect students to remove face coverings if they turn up ‘looking like a bank robber’.
He wrote: ‘If you tell me that the burka is oppressive, then I am with you. ‘If you say that it is weird and bullying to expect women to cover their faces, then I totally agree – and I would add that I can find no scriptural authority for the practice in the Koran.
‘I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letterboxes.’ But he said a total ban would boost radicals who claim there is a ‘clash of civilisations’ between Islam and the West, he said. Mr Johnson was criticised heavily for the comments, with Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council Of Britain, saying he was ‘pandering to the far right’.
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