Councillor wants to ban staff from wearing veils

The Deputy Mayor of Calderdale Council in West Yorkshire has called for a ban on burkas and niqabs for council staff who deal with the public. Allen Clegg, an Independent councillor but formerly a Liberal Democrat, said that Muslim dress intimidates people:

Council workers are often facing the public and I don't think the public feels comfortable or safe facing someone they essentially cannot see.

It's a matter of common sense. How would you feel if a social worker turned up at your door wearing something that resembled a Ku Klux Klan outfit?

Councillor Clegg's suggestion and his comparison with the Ku Klux Klan has upset Calderdale's Muslim Association, who argue that a ban would infringe employee's religious rights.

If this proposal were to be accepted, it would make an interesting test case. Legally, the burden of proof would be on the the council to show that someone could not do her job effectively if her face was hidden. This defence was successfully used in neighbouring Dewsbury against Aishah Azmi's religious discrimination claim.

But Councillor Clegg's colleagues are in no hurry to discuss his proposal. They probably don't want to deal with a legal challenge that would almost certainly be accompanied by street demonstrations and lots of media attention. Councillor Clegg has a good point, even if he made it in a rather clumsy way, but I would be very surprised if his suggestion were to be implemented.

Comments

[Jack R]

Mr. Allen Clegg is completely correct in what he says.

Of course, the niqab and the burka are non-essential Muslim garb, designed to scare and alienate the Western non-Muslim majority in the UK.

The anti-social sight of such monstrous outfits, is particularly frightening for British indigenous young children, as I have experienced myself. So, of course, such anti-social Muslim women want to 'teach' our children dressed like that in schools. Of course, this is what the ideology of 'multiculturalism' is taken to mean: the vast majority of the white British people giving up their values and traditions to be taken over by Islamic diktat.

France rightly bans all 'Muslim' veils, the Netherlands is likely to do so, and Britain should do the same. Now.

[Sam Roony]

If the inevitable and predicable is interesting here
it is . Decision making of a high order. They'll go far (if only)

[Sam Roony]

If the inevitable and predicable is interesting here
it is . Decision making of a high order. They'll go far (if only)