Waar zorgen moslimextremisten nou niet voor onrust ........
Geplaatst: 22 okt 2006 11:16
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6068408.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6068408.stm
Warning over UK race riot danger
Trevor Phillips
Trevor Phillips said Britain is becoming polarised
The polarised debate over Muslim veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned.
Excessive criticism of Muslims and over-sensitivity among some Muslims had grown, Trevor Phillips said.
"This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago," he told the Sunday Times.
Mr Phillips backed Jack Straw's raising of the issue of veils.
He said a "gentle, nuanced" debate was needed.
'Need to chill'
Mr Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, sparked furious debate in the media after he said he preferred women not to wear veils at his surgeries in his constituency because he believed they made communication difficult.
There have also been rows in the media about a Christian British Airways worker wearing a cross, and a Muslim teaching assistant wearing a veil in the classroom.
Mr Phillips said the debate about how people live together in Britain must be conducted in plain English.
It must also be without the politeness that stops people publicly saying secret "truths" they might share with people of the same race, he said.
But he said the polarisation of the debate over race and religion risked a repeat of the Burnley and Oldham riots, while insisting: "This time the conflict would be much worse - we need to chill."
'Generation' issue
He added: "All the recent evidence shows that we are, as a society, becoming more socially polarised by race and faith."
On Mr Straw's comments, Mr Phillips said Muslims leaders were wrong to attack the Blackburn MP for asking Muslim women to remove their veils.
He said they had been "overly defensive".
He said: "The problem with it [the debate] so far is that it has been conducted in the wrong place between the wrong people and about the wrong things.
"This was as much a comment about him and his generation as it was about the niqab.
"It maybe that be that people like [Mr] Straw have greater difficulty coping with the social gap that not seeing someone's face undoubtedly creates."
Next month the CRE will host the largest race convention held in Europe, marking the body's 30th anniversary, ahead of its handover to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6074286.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6068408.stm
Warning over UK race riot danger
Trevor Phillips
Trevor Phillips said Britain is becoming polarised
The polarised debate over Muslim veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned.
Excessive criticism of Muslims and over-sensitivity among some Muslims had grown, Trevor Phillips said.
"This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago," he told the Sunday Times.
Mr Phillips backed Jack Straw's raising of the issue of veils.
He said a "gentle, nuanced" debate was needed.
'Need to chill'
Mr Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, sparked furious debate in the media after he said he preferred women not to wear veils at his surgeries in his constituency because he believed they made communication difficult.
There have also been rows in the media about a Christian British Airways worker wearing a cross, and a Muslim teaching assistant wearing a veil in the classroom.
Mr Phillips said the debate about how people live together in Britain must be conducted in plain English.
It must also be without the politeness that stops people publicly saying secret "truths" they might share with people of the same race, he said.
But he said the polarisation of the debate over race and religion risked a repeat of the Burnley and Oldham riots, while insisting: "This time the conflict would be much worse - we need to chill."
'Generation' issue
He added: "All the recent evidence shows that we are, as a society, becoming more socially polarised by race and faith."
On Mr Straw's comments, Mr Phillips said Muslims leaders were wrong to attack the Blackburn MP for asking Muslim women to remove their veils.
He said they had been "overly defensive".
He said: "The problem with it [the debate] so far is that it has been conducted in the wrong place between the wrong people and about the wrong things.
"This was as much a comment about him and his generation as it was about the niqab.
"It maybe that be that people like [Mr] Straw have greater difficulty coping with the social gap that not seeing someone's face undoubtedly creates."
Next month the CRE will host the largest race convention held in Europe, marking the body's 30th anniversary, ahead of its handover to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6074286.stm