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A dispute over whether Muslim women should wear face veils in Britain heated up Sunday after a government minister called for the sacking of a teaching assistant who refused to remove hers in school.
In an interview with the Sunday Mirror, Phil Woolas, the race and faith relations minister, said Aishah Azmi had raised a dilemma in which she risked either breaching sex discrimination rules or denying children an education.
"She should be sacked. She has put herself in a position where she can't do her job," Woolas was quoted as telling the weekly.
Leading Muslim figures denounced his comments as an inappropriate intervention in the school's affairs.
A non-Muslim opposition politician opposed the intervention, but backed Woolas' stand in principle.
Stressing that Azmi's suspension had nothing to do with religion, Headfield Church of England junior school in Dewsbury is reported to have deemed face-to-face contact was essential in her role as a bilingual support worker.
Kirklees Council, the school's local administrative body, confirmed that Azmi's case had gone to an employment tribunal and that she would remain suspended until it had reached a verdict.
Azmi, 24, told BBC radio Saturday she had only insisted on wearing it in the company of male colleagues but had accepted to remove it while in class with her pupils.
She said later on television that she did not wear her veil at the interview for her job because she was interviewed by a woman, though she admitted that a man had also been present for a few moments.
"She cannot teach a classroom of children wearing a veil. You cannot have a teacher who wears a veil simply because there are men in the room," Woolas told the Sunday Mirror.
"By insisting that she will wear the veil if men are there, she's saying: 'I'll work with women, not men," he said. "That's sexual discrimination. No headteacher could agree to that."
Inayat Bunglawala of The Muslim Council of Britain told the domestic Press Association news agency that Woolas had gone too far.
"This remark by Mr Woolas is an outrageous intervention by the government into a matter that should be decided by the school -- and if necessary by the courts," he said.
The Labour MP for Dewsbury Shahid Malik was also critical.
"I think Phil was speaking in terms of general principles and issues, and I think government, you know, hasn't just got a right to comment and make statements and intervene," he told BBC radio.
Malik also warned that the constant running of negative stories in the media about Muslims is having a "corrosive impact" and that a proper debate was difficult when "one part of the community feels it is being targeted".
David Davis, of the main opposition Conservative Party, told Sky News that the veil was "not appropriate" for a teaching assistant.
However, he said: "I'm not sure it is wise to intervene in an individual case while it is still undergoing this disciplinary procedure."
The news of Azmi's suspension came days after former foreign secretary and current cabinet minister Jack Straw provoked a furor by revealing that he asked Muslim women visiting his constituency office to remove their veils.
He said the veil was a barrier to good communication as well as a promotion of separate cultures in Britain, though he was happy with the headscarf because a woman's face could be seen.
Some 60 people, including women wearing veils, protested outside Straw's office in Blackburn, northwestern England, on Saturday.
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AFP 151614 GMT 10 06
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