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Warning over UK race riot danger Warning over UK race riot danger
(about 2 hours later)
The polarised debate over Muslim veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned. The polarised debate over full-face veils could spark race riots in the UK, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality has warned.
Excessive criticism of Muslims and over-sensitivity among some Muslims had grown, Trevor Phillips said.Excessive criticism of Muslims and over-sensitivity among some Muslims had grown, Trevor Phillips said.
"This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago," he told the Sunday Times."This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago," he told the Sunday Times.
Mr Phillips backed Jack Straw's raising of the issue of veils. Mr Phillips said a "gentle, nuanced" debate was needed.
He said a "gentle, nuanced" debate was needed.
'Need to chill''Need to chill'
Mr Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, sparked furious debate in the media after he said he preferred women not to wear veils at his surgeries in his constituency because he believed they made communication difficult. Jack Straw, Leader of the House of Commons, has said he preferred women not to wear full-face veils at his surgeries in his constituency because he believed they made communication difficult.
There have also been rows in the media about a Christian British Airways worker wearing a cross, and a Muslim teaching assistant wearing a veil in the classroom. It sparked furious debate in the media, along with stories about a Christian British Airways worker wearing a cross, and a Muslim teaching assistant wearing a full-face veil in the classroom.
Mr Phillips said the debate about how people live together in Britain must be conducted in plain English. Mr Phillips said the polarised debate over race and religion risked a repeat of the Burnley and Oldham riots, while insisting: "This time the conflict would be much worse - we need to chill."
It must also be without the politeness that stops people publicly saying secret "truths" they might share with people of the same race, he said. Mr Straw feels that covering faces can make community relations difficult
But he said the polarisation of the debate over race and religion risked a repeat of the Burnley and Oldham riots, while insisting: "This time the conflict would be much worse - we need to chill." He told BBC One's AM programme people needed to feel as though they were playing a part in society, and issued a warning about allowing communities to separate.
'Generation' issue "That is the way to create a country which is not at ease with itself," he told the BBC.
He added: "All the recent evidence shows that we are, as a society, becoming more socially polarised by race and faith." "We saw it in France last year where the French allowed north African communities to grow up completely separately, not feeling French.
On Mr Straw's comments, Mr Phillips said Muslims leaders were wrong to attack the Blackburn MP for asking Muslim women to remove their veils. "Eventually that frustration, that exclusion boiled over into the kind of car burning we saw last year...I do not want that for Britain."
He said they had been "overly defensive". On Mr Straw's comments, Mr Phillips told the Sunday Times Muslims leaders had been "overly defensive" in attacking the Blackburn MP.
He said: "The problem with it [the debate] so far is that it has been conducted in the wrong place between the wrong people and about the wrong things. "This was as much a comment about him and his generation as it was about the niqab," he wrote.
"This was as much a comment about him and his generation as it was about the niqab. What should've been a proper conversation...seems to have been turned into the trial of a particular community Trevor Phillips
"It maybe that be that people like [Mr] Straw have greater difficulty coping with the social gap that not seeing someone's face undoubtedly creates.""It maybe that be that people like [Mr] Straw have greater difficulty coping with the social gap that not seeing someone's face undoubtedly creates."
But he said later that while he welcomed the debate, it seemed to have turned into "something ugly".
"What should've been a proper conversation between all kinds of British people, seems to have been turned into the trial of a particular community and that cannot be right," he said.
The head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari, has complained that a "drip feed" of ministerial statements on the veils issue had stigmatised the Muslim community.
Next month the CRE will host the largest race convention held in Europe, marking the body's 30th anniversary, ahead of its handover to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.Next month the CRE will host the largest race convention held in Europe, marking the body's 30th anniversary, ahead of its handover to the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.