BRITAIN: Former British home secretary Jack Straw is looking increasingly isolated after the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, and other senior politicians said they disagreed with his call for Muslim women to remove their veils.
Mr Straw, now leader of the House of Commons, was praised for raising a debate about the veils worn by some Muslim women, which he last week described as a "visible statement of separation".
The Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, a non-governmental organisation promoting Muslim interests, endorsed his move.
However Mr Prescott, health secretary Patricia Hewitt, secretary of state for communities Ruth Kelly and secretary of state for Northern Ireland and for Wales Peter Hain, have distanced themselves from Mr Straw's request for women to uncover their faces.
Interviewed on the BBC television's Sunday AM, Mr Prescott said: "I think this debate does open it up, thank goodness Jack has done that, but I fear sometimes people might use it in a more prejudiced way and I am concerned it may damage relations rather than improve them."
Ms Hewitt said in the past she had seen the veil as a symbol of oppression, but changed her mind when a Muslim woman came to see her in her constituency.
"She'd made the decision - not her parents or anybody else - that she wanted, as part of her statement of her faith, to wear the veil. I would not ask her to take that off or to change a decision that she has made as an adult woman," she told BBC1's Politics Show.
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Muslim Parliament of Great Britain leader, endorsed Mr Straw's intervention, saying that fewer than 5 per cent of Muslim women wore niqabs. "This is not a religious issue but a cultural one. Mr Straw has opened a debate within the Muslim community and encouraged interaction."