UK\u2019s former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has sparked criticism with his comment on Muslim women in burkas, saying they \u201clook like letter boxes.\u201d; he has been asked to apologize.
\n\u201cBoris Johnson rightly opposes the Danish ban on the niqab but denigrates the minority of women who choose to wear it. He described them as looking like \u201cletter boxes\u201d or \u201cbank robbers\u201d \u2013 in language that would not be used about other faiths,\u201d the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said in a statement Monday.
\nThe former foreign secretary went on to compare Muslim women in burqas to \u201crebellious teenagers\u201d and said he would expect his constituents to remove face coverings when talking to him at his MP\u2019s surgery, in an article he wrote for the Daily Telegraph on Monday.
\nCritics warned that these comments fuel hate discourse, putting Muslim women who choose to don hijab in danger.
\n\u201cHis comments are particularly regrettable in this current climate, where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred is becoming worryingly pervasive with disappointingly little action from this current government. Muslim women bear the brunt of hate on the streets,\u201d the umbrella British Muslim group added.
\n\u201cJust this week, two people were jailed for torturing a Muslim convert and a bookshop was attacked by Islamophobes.\u201d
\nJohnson \u2018s statement has also sparked an angry response from other politicians with Labour urging him to apologize, The Guardian reported.
\n\u201cBoris Johnson\u2019s latest racist insults cannot be laughed off like they often are,\u201d said Naz Shah, Labour\u2019s shadow equalities minister. \u201cSaying Muslim women look like letterboxes, comparing them to bank robbers and describing Islam as a \u2018problem\u2019 was a calculated attack and published in a national newspaper.
\n\u201cTheresa May must condemn this blatant Islamophobia and Boris Johnson must apologize.\u201d
\nLabour MP David Lammy called Johnson a \u201cpound-shop Donald Trump\u201d and accused him of \u201cfanning the flames of Islamophobia\u201d for political advantage. He tweeted:
\nMuslim women are having their burkas pulled off by thugs in our streets & Boris Johnson\u2019s response is to mock them for \u201clooking like letter boxes.\u201d Our pound-shop Donald Trump is fanning the flames of Islamophobia to propel his grubby electoral ambitions.
\n\u2014 David Lammy (DavidLammy) August 6, 2018<\/p>\n
Labour MP Stella Creasy tweeted:
\nDear Tory leadership voters \u2013 one of the potential candidates thinks you want Bannon not Boris on the ballot paper. Make sure you tell him being a Buffoon not being a racist and misogynist more British and more your bag before he goes full morrissey\u2026
\n\u2014 stellacreasy (stellacreasy) August 6, 2018<\/p>\n
Last week Denmark followed France, Germany, Austria, and Belgium in banning face-covering garments like the burka and niqab in public places.
\nA fine of around \u00a3120 has already been imposed on a woman wearing a niqab in a shopping center in the town of Horsholm after another woman reportedly tried to tear it off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UK\u2019s former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has sparked criticism with his comment on Muslim women in burkas, saying they \u201clook like letter boxes.\u201d; he has been asked to apologize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n