Race minister: sack veil woman

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?cp-documentid=1074135

The Government's race minister has said a Muslim teaching assistant who refuses to remove her veil at work should be sacked.

Phil Woolas said Aishah Azmi's stand meant she could not "do her job", and insisted barring men from working with her would amount to "sexual discrimination".

The minister accused her of "denying the right of children to a full education".
Meanwhile, Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said Muslim leaders were risking "voluntary apartheid" in Britain.

In an article for a Sunday newspaper, Mr Davis warned of "closed societies" being created in the UK, and said religious divides threatened to "corrode" fundamental values such as freedom of speech.

Earlier in the week, the Leader of the Commons, Jack Straw, said he asked female Muslim constituents to lift their veils during private discussions.
Mr Davis wrote: "What Jack touched on was the fundamental issue of whether, in Britain, we are developing a divided society.

"Whether we are creating a series of closed societies within our open society. Whether we are inadvertently encouraging a kind of voluntary apartheid."
Mr Davis said there was a "growing feeling that the Muslim community is excessively sensitive to criticism, unwilling to engage in substantive debate".