Straw and the veil

Former British foreign minister Jack Straw, as eager a dhimmi as the Island nation has produced, has finally found something about Islam that goes “too far” for him and has become the occasion for him to make an unprincipled exception to his own dhimmitude: he feels uncomfortable when his Muslim women constituents meet with him face to face with, uh, their faces entirely concealed. Of course, his principles being liberal, Straw rushes to add that Muslim women have the absolute right to cover their entire face when meeting with their parliamentary representative if that is what they choose to do, but then he says that relations would be better if he could, uh, actually see the face of the person to whom he is speaking. For venturing this tiny little baby step outside the circle of pure dhimmitude, a condition he has done as much as anyone in Britain to create, Straw has been angrily accused by Muslims of anti-Muslim discrimination.

When the Beatles sang about those 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire (the location of Straw’s parliamentary district), they hadn’t remotely conceived of a creature like Straw himself, a hole, an absence, an emptiness of a human being who has helped turn Britain into a hole, an absence, an emptiness of a country into which the Muslims are pouring and expanding their power, while Straw belatedly notices and fecklessly protests the fact that his Muslim constituents—the constituents he invited and welcomed and still welcomes into England—are like aliens from another planet.

However, in a story from the Telegraph, Straw sounds stronger and is quoted saying that it would be better for Muslim women to get rid of the burqa altogether, at least when dealing with non-Muslims. “Seeing people’s faces is fundamental to relationships,” he says. Well, duh. But, once again, why is Straw only discovering this obvious truth now? Ten years ago in Kensington Gardens I saw totally covered Muslim women everywhere. It was the freakiest thing I ever saw in my life. If Straw stays with his new line against the burqa, that would represent a significant turnaround. But, given his long record as a cultural leftist, I am not holding my breath. I hope I’m wrong, but what I think Straw is doing is kvetching prior to a further retreat.

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Russell W. writes:

In response to Jack Straw’s recent comments about women wearing the veil in Britain, Dennis Prager on the radio just went through a very unexpected monologue, particularly in light of his past indications that he seems to think we in the West can simply change Islam to be something we find acceptable.

He called the whole concept of the veil “utterly dehumanizing,” leaving no wriggle room for his usual (false) dichotomy between belief and behavior, and pointed out quite clearly that mainstream Muslims defend it by saying that it is a fundamental part of Islam. This to him was unacceptable, and it highlights his basic conceptual crisis re: Islam.

He never resolved it and was eventually reduced to tortured-sounding statements like, “How can I conclude something so condemnatory about a religion that includes a billion people?!”

It’s some sort of progress, I suppose, that he is acknowledging that something “utterly dehumanizing” is considered a mainstream Islamic precept. I wonder when and if he will take the next necessary step?

I follow Prager closely because I think he is the one mainstream talk radio host who is honest about his beliefs and thought processes. I don’t think he kowtows to political correct fantasies, he merely actually believes some of them and is painfully unaware of his own ideological blinders. But I believe if he ever allows himself consciously to acknowledge certain unpleasant truths (which he seems to be getting closer to doing), he will be honest about it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 06, 2006 01:48 AM | Send