Wading through the British newspapers on Friday, I did a double-take. A headline in the Daily Mail read: ‘Police force is planning to let Muslim officers wear full burqas.’ Must be a joke, was my initial reaction. I relayed the news to my better half. “Don’t be silly,” he snapped. Turns out it’s nothing to laugh about.
Apparently, the chief constable of one of the United Kingdom’s largest police forces, West Midlands Police, that’s launched a recruitment drive says he is keen to employ minorities for diversity’s sake and as the force has already approved turbans and hijabs, he has no objections to burqas or niqabs on the beat.
Imagine being accosted in the street by a gun- or Taser-toting female whose face is obscured; that’ll do nothing for race relations or for security. Anyone with criminal intent could don the uniform without fear of being identified by security cameras. Muslim communities are being unfairly slammed when, as the chief constable admitted, he’s yet to receive requests for the burqa to be incorporated into police attire.
As for improving race relations, it’s likely to have the opposite effect in light of the brouhaha this has elicited on social media. Even British Muslims are disapproving. In some of the most conservative Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, the full face veil is not worn by police women.
It’s one thing for an undercover police woman or one consigned to a desk job to don the burqa and quite another for them to be seen as the public face of a British police force out on the streets.
Moreover, every profession has its own written or unwritten dress code. Ad agencies wouldn’t appreciate their senior account executives turning up for work wearing orange robes and shaven heads.
Five Star hotels throughout the Arab world generally would not employ burqa-clad front desk staff and many are reluctant to accept applicants wearing the head scarf for customer service or PR positions.
Cairo University has barred its female doctors, nurses and academics from covering their faces to allow for more effective communication and earlier this year, lawmakers discussed banning the burqa in public areas.
I’ve always defended a woman’s right to wear whatever she wants. I was outraged at the attitude of French mayors to the burkini and especially videos of burkini-clad women on beaches being approached by armed police wielding pepper spray.
Banning the burkini as a garment contrary to the country’s hallowed culture smacks of bigotry and serves as a gift to terrorist recruiters who brainwash losers into believing they are only as French as the passport they hold. Britain’s anything-goes stance, however, is the other side of the same dangerous coin.
The UK is so laissez-faire, it permits radicals to march through the capital’s streets waving black flags and chanting abuse at the police, deriding the very democracy that allows them the right of protest.
A few weeks ago, an invitation for Muslim Brotherhood leaders, activists and journalists (propagandists) to apply for asylum in Britain appeared on the British Home Office website.
Strange at any time, but especially when a substantial number of British citizens are so irritated by Polish plumbers and other European immigrants that they voted for potential economic suicide in the form of Brexit. And even more so when an official enquiry found that the Brotherhood’s tactics and ideology were contrary to Britain’s values, national interests and national security.
But perhaps it’s not that surprising when the head of the Labour Party has been caught on video inviting a hate preacher, a former jail bird, to the House of Commons for “tea on the terrace.” And the mayor of London’s former brother-in-law was a supporter of the now-banned Al Muhajiroun extremist organisation notorious for its praise of the 9/11 attacks.
What’s the game here? Is Britain laying out the red carpet for radicals in hopes they won’t dirty on their own doorstep? If so, the government had better keep an eye on the far-right, which is riding the anti-immigration, anti-Islamic wave all over Europe, including Germany where Mein Kampf has become a best-seller; by all accounts 24,000 copies have been bought in seven weeks.
It’s a similar mood across the Atlantic. Republican presidential candidate in the United States, Donald Trump, has just reconfirmed his intention to register Muslim-Americans in a database.
Western countries are out of kilter; Britain is a haven for extremists. France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland are battening down the hatches and if Trump gets the White House, terrorists will be laughing all the way to their bomb belts.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk
Thank you Linda Heard for this comprehensive discussion of appropriate work attire.