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20/10/2006
Tory leader expresses concerns over veil debate
Conservative leader David Cameron has expressed concern over Muslim women who wear full face veils and feels they are being "slightly targeted".
Mr Cameron told ITV1's Frost Tonight he had "great sympathy" for the school which suspended the teaching assistant, Aisah Azmi.
A tribunal yesterday dismissed three claims that Kirklees council harassed and discriminated against Mrs Azmi following her suspension from Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after she refused to remove her veil in front of male colleagues.
However, Kirklies council was ordered to pay Mrs Azmi £1,100 for victimising her.
The Tory leader told Frost Tonight: "'I have great sympathy with the school because it seems to me there isn't a teaching in Islam which says you have to wear the veil in front of children and, in terms of teaching, communication is vitally important."
Cameron also said that he supported Commons leader Jack Straw and had raised the issue on a "calm, reasonable and moderate way".
"I actually think what Jack Straw wrote about it originally was calm and reasonable and moderate," he added.
Straw said he would prefer women not to wear veils because they acted as a "visible statement of separation and difference".
(CD)
Mr Cameron told ITV1's Frost Tonight he had "great sympathy" for the school which suspended the teaching assistant, Aisah Azmi.
A tribunal yesterday dismissed three claims that Kirklees council harassed and discriminated against Mrs Azmi following her suspension from Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after she refused to remove her veil in front of male colleagues.
However, Kirklies council was ordered to pay Mrs Azmi £1,100 for victimising her.
The Tory leader told Frost Tonight: "'I have great sympathy with the school because it seems to me there isn't a teaching in Islam which says you have to wear the veil in front of children and, in terms of teaching, communication is vitally important."
Cameron also said that he supported Commons leader Jack Straw and had raised the issue on a "calm, reasonable and moderate way".
"I actually think what Jack Straw wrote about it originally was calm and reasonable and moderate," he added.
Straw said he would prefer women not to wear veils because they acted as a "visible statement of separation and difference".
(CD)
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A Muslim teaching assistant who was suspended from her job for failing to remove her veil in class has been sacked. Aishah Azmi had been suspended on full pay earlier by Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, after she was asked to remove her veil while in the classroom.
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