| | Proving his opportunistic streak knows no bounds Dr Taj Hargey (pictured) of the Muslim Educational Centre in Oxford pens a column for the Daily Mail in which he defends the right of Christians to wear the crucifix in the name of tolerance and harmony, but denounces Muslim women who wear the burqa for practicing a ‘threatening anonymity’ and ‘reinforcing differences between cultures’.
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Hargey writes in today’s paper:
‘…make no mistake, a new form of virulent secularism is sweeping through society - and its target is Christianity.
‘I am Muslim. But even as a non-Christian, I can see all too clearly the shameful way in which Britain's national faith is being eroded. Indeed, banning a crucifix makes a mockery of our treasured right to religious freedom.
‘With a typically bureaucratic mix of arrogance and authoritarianism, the Devon and Exeter Trust has claimed that the ban is not an attack on Christianity because wearing a crucifix is not an essential requirement of the faith.
‘But who appointed these quangocrats to pronounce on matters of religious doctrine? What right do they have to lecture a devout woman about her cherished beliefs?
‘As a Muslim, I am filled with despair at the attitude of our politically correct officials towards Christianity.
‘For me, all true religious faith, if practised with benevolence and humility, can only strengthen our society. To undermine religion is to undermine society itself.
‘It is, therefore, the duty of British Muslims to defend Christianity when it comes under assault.
‘But what is sickening about this case is the PC brigade's outrageous hypocrisy.
‘For in the public sector, normally so hypersensitive to allegations of prejudice against ethnic minorities, it is unimaginable that bureaucrats would wade in with the same bullying ferocity against a Muslim or Hindu nurse who wanted to wear a symbol of her faith in the workplace.
‘Such grotesque inconsistencies do nothing to promote harmony in our society.
‘A strong society demands tolerance and integration. Yet the political class has made a tragic mistake in recent years by emphasising cultural differences between migrant communities and normal Britons.
‘This agenda has been eagerly exploited by Islamic hard-liners who thrive on division. They are so eager to promote the wearing of the burqa by women, so that the line of separation is further widened.
‘But these shrill demands for the imposition of the burqa in the Muslim community are utterly misguided. Nothing in the Koran says Muslim women have to be dressed in this way.
‘And unlike a simple crucifix, which is utterly harmless, the burqa affords a threatening anonymity, reinforcing the differences between different cultures.
‘Indeed, while anyone should be allowed to wear a simple cross - or headscarf - the burqa is entirely inappropriate in Britain.
‘I would not want to see it banned, for that might only heighten the sense of martyrdom and grievance among the zealots, but I certainly believe that mainstream Muslims have a duty to speak out against it.
‘The same argument could be made against minarets, which unlike Ms Chaplin's crucifix, could also be seen as inflammatory - and for which there is no religious requirement in Islam.
‘I recently spoke out against plans for a mosque in Camberley, Surrey, which would have seen the present Grade I-listed building pulled down - and replaced with a vast Middle Eastern structure complete with 100ft tall minarets, which would have overlooked the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy.
‘Rather than being a discreet and respectful demonstration of an individual's faith, this would have been a provocative structure creating divisions, rather than forging links, in the local community....unless the authorities change their tune and start protecting the traditions of the British majority, we face an inexorable slide towards ever more division.’
How ironic that Hargey should label the interference of the Devon and Exeter Trust an example of ‘arrogance and authoritarianism' for ‘claim[ing] that the ban is not an attack on Christianity because wearing a crucifix is not an essential requirement of the faith’, while at the same time telling DM readers that the burqa is not a requirement of the Islamic faith and therefore ‘entirely inappropriate in Britain’?
Or in telling readers that ‘anyone should be allowed to wear a simple cross,’ because it is ‘utterly harmless’ but condemn minarets because they are not ‘discreet and respectful’.
Can Hargey not see the ‘arrogance and authoritarianism’ which he too is guilty of practicing?
“Such grotesque inconsistencies do nothing to promote harmony in our society,” he says. You got that right Dr Hargey.
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