Britain: Minister rejects burqa ban proposal

LONDON // Britain’s parliament should not try to ban wearing full-length veils in public after France’s lower house passed a bill which could see Muslim women fined for wearing the burqa, the immigration minister Damian Green has said.
“I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can’t wear, if they’re just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do,” he added. “We’re a tolerant and mutually respectful society.”
A ban on wearing the burqa in France, home to western Europe’s largest Muslim minority, would not be likely to have an impact on immigration in Britain, Mr Green said.

Of France’s five million Muslims, it is thought only about 2,000 women wear the full-length veil.
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