LONDON – The leader of a British far-right party has vowed to enforce a complete burka (face veil) and Shari`ah courts ban if he won June elections, as he released the party’s manifesto.
“There is the issue of integration. I do not believe you cannot integrate full and enjoy the fruits of British society if you cannot see people’s faces,” Paul Nuttall, the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKip), told BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, The Independence reported on Sunday, April 23.
“What we need to do is make these people fully integrated into British society and you can’t do that behind the veil.”
Along with the face-veil ban, the manifesto will also propose to outlaw Shari`ah law and make it a legal obligation to report female genital mutilation to police.
It will also call for postal voting to be abolished over concerns of electoral fraud.
Nuttall has denied Ukip’s proposals amount to an “attack” on Muslims.
“We have a heightened security risk at the moment and for CCTV to be effective you need to see people’s faces, because whether we like it or not in this country there’s more CCTV per head than anywhere else on the planet,” Nuttall added.
“We’re the most watched and for that to be effective you need to see people’s faces.
Ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage proposed a burka ban in 2010 but the party later dropped the policy after Paul Nuttall took over.
Asked why Ukip had changed from its 2013 stance, when Nuttall said the party would not pursue a blanket ban against face-covering veils, Nuttall said: “There’s obviously the bigger security threat that we face now.”
He added that calls to ban Shari`ah law were designed to stop a “parallel legal system” in the country.
However, he said his party will not pursue a similar ban on Jewish courts.
Nuttall said: “Beth Din is slightly different.
“We’ve had Beth Din courts in this country which date all the way back to the days of Cromwell.
“The Orthodox Jewish population is falling, it’s about a quarter of a million now.
“The issue surrounding Shari`ah is that the Muslim population is doubling decade on decade. It’s three million now, it’ll be six million soon.”