Straw blamed for 'racist' backlash

Jack Straw set the cat amongst the pigeons when he made his announcement that he thought Muslim women ought to stop wearing the veil and revealed that, when Muslim women visited him in his surgery, that he requested that they remove their veils so that they could talk to each other "face to face."

It is hard to know why Straw felt the need to open up this particular line of discussion at this particular moment in time. I have been puzzled for days now over what he hoped to gain by starting this, after all his Blackburn constituency has a very large Muslim population who were guaranteed to be outraged, which will hardly help him gain electoral success at the next election.

Nor have his comments led to a reasonable debate. Talk shows up and down Britain have been consumed with the subject, generating much heat but not a lot of light as both camps swiftly adopted easily predictable positions.

However, apart from finding it hard to see what Straw hoped to gain by starting this contentious discussion, more disturbing is the racial tension that his comments have brought bubbling to the surface.

Random acts of violence against Muslim women have taken place across the country, some of them undeniably linked to Straw's statement:

The first sign of a racist reaction came in Liverpool on Friday when a man snatched a veil from a 49-year-old woman's face after shouting racist abuse.

A young Muslim girl wearing a veil in Blackburn was confronted by three youths on Friday night. One threw a newspaper at her and shouted: "Jack has told you to take off your veil."

Now, Jack Straw is a reasonable man and I am sure had no idea that his words would inflame matters in the way that they undeniably have. He and his supporters no doubt feel that this is an important discussion that needs to be had in order to promote social cohesion. However, when the very opening of the discussion leads to an almost instant breakdown in social cohesion in certain areas one must question the wisdom of raising the subject at this moment in time.

"I think Jack may have unleashed forces more negative and corrosive than he anticipated," said Mr Malik. "I think there is a growing feeling among Muslims in Britain that something has got to give. They are genuinely fearful of attack."

The Race Relations minister Phil Woolas claimed Mr Straw's comments had provoked a backlash. The Oldham MP said that Muslims in his constituency had received phone calls from relatives asking if they were safe in Britain, following the extensive news coverage of the issue.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission called for unity in Britain, but the chairman Massoud Shadjareh, said Mr Straw should not let clothing " become a hurdle for discussion".

If I were a Muslim living in Britain I think it is fair to say that I would, at this point, feel as if I was under attack.

Under constant demand to condemn terrorism, warned by John Reid to watch for signs of radicalisation amongst your own children and now questioned by Straw over the wisdom of wearing a religious veil.

Straw is now being deserted by many in his own party for his comments:

Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said she saw wearing the veil as a " personal choice" and would not ask a woman who sought her advice to remove it.

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, who is expected to run against Mr Straw to become deputy leader of the Labour Party, said that women should be entitled to wear the veil if they chose.

"I believe that women, like everybody else, are entitled to dress as they choose to dress," he said on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions.

However, other members of the Labour Party may seek to distance themselves from Straw's specific remarks regarding dress code, but they are all as guilty of seeing terrorism as an "Islamic" problem in a way that we did not condemn Irish nationalism as a Catholic problem.

The incidents in Liverpool and Blackburn indicate just how fragile community relations are in certain parts of the country and just how potent are the forces that Blair has been tampering with when he describes his war against "fundamentalist Islam".

The danger in describing the battle in these terms is that one makes all members of a certain religion open to abuse by the baser elements of society.

Straw has been rightly condemned for opening up this discussion at this time and for the violence against Muslim women that his comments have generated.

However Blair, and the Labour Party in general, need to understand that the problem goes way beyond Straw's comments. The problem lies in the very way they have chosen to make terrorism a "Muslim" issue.

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