19-12-2003

London, IRNA – The British government has taken an early opportunity to criticise France’s proposal to ban Muslim girls from wearing hijabs at school by pouring scorn on President Jacques Chirac’s decision.

Speaking at an ‘Id al-Fitr reception in London Thursday night, Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart said it was neither the government’s role, nor intention to dictate to British people how and when they should express their religious affiliation.

"In Britain we have a proud tradition of supporting free speech and allowing people to follow their own beliefs. The British way is to support religious freedom. It is tolerant and adaptable,” she said.

Mactaggart, who is responsible for Race Equality, Community Policy and Civil Renewal, said Britishness was “not homogeneous,” but is “as rich” as the different people. “British Muslims have consistently shown how it is possible to be British, Muslim and proud,” she said.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said that it warmly welcomed the minister’s comments in the light of the French threat to ban the hijab.

The MCB Secretary-General, Iqbal Sacranie said it was “a matter of pride for us that Muslim women can freely wear the hijab in the UK if they choose to do so.”

“The reality is that Britain today comprises of a multi-faith society, as does France. By outlawing the hijab in state schools, the French government has not only institutionalised Islamophobia but has contributed towards the even further marginalisation and disenfranchisement of that country’s Muslim community,” he said.

Sacranie urged the British government to engage with its partners in Paris and at the European Union in Brussels and “work towards the revocation of this unjust ban.”

In her speech, Mactaggart referred to what she described as “a long running controversy in France both within the state education system and nationally about symbols and the role of faith in a secular society.”

But she poured scorn on the French response by saying that in Britain, “this is a debate we had a long time ago.” She also lectured Chirac that it was the duty of government to all its citizens to given them freedom to practise their own faith.

“With our very different traditions and with sensitivity displayed by all faiths, we have been able to find within our own culture a way of celebrating diversity without controversy,” the minister advised Paris.

She said that the duty everyone of everyone in the UK was to eliminate discrimination and bigotry and that “the key to fighting prejudice is to build understanding.”

“For example a British woman can wear the hijab comfortably in public or in a school. That diversity is something that as a Government we value and why we are developing work on inter-faith dialogue,” Mactaggart told the reception.

The importance, she emphasised, was in “understanding of each others’ cultures and respect for one another's traditions and values.”

The minister also used her speech to clarify the misunderstanding caused by the misuse of the term “fundamentalism” that often discredited with terrorism.

“I respect the faith of others and understand that many people of faith hold firmly to all the fundamentals of their faiths and would therefore see themselves as 'fundamentalists',” she said.

What was needed, Mactaggart suggested, was to “distinguish between such people - the vast majority - and the small number of those whose misinterpretation of such faith leads them into extremism, intolerance.”

“The fact that extremism seeks to exploit religion and increase alienation in communities is of concern to us all. We must all work together to undermine the efforts of extremists because they harm all society, not just the minority groups they target or claim to represent,” she said.
HC