The police play dress-up

James Strong

This is a change of behaviour to appease or 'understand' mohammedans.
It is wrong. No concessions at all, of any type, should be made to mohammedans. Or to any other group or 'community'.

There are only two groups that should be viwed distinctly by the police:
1)the law-abiding
2)the non law-abiding.

David

"Is this really the best use of police time?"

If it results in a more open relationship with the community, such as the recent case where the local police were told of a terrorist by the local community, then yes, it will pay off massively.

"This statement could be read as South Yorkshire police implying that Muslim women who do not wear these clothes are not behaving appropriately."

No it couldn't, since it's clearly referring only to those women who do wear these clothes.

EyeSee

If the police put themselves in the shoes of a victim of crime we might be getting somewhere. But, having run away from dealing with nasty criminals, they are now trying to hide from becoming involved in the terrorist threat. So, we're on our own then. Oh, apart from the soldiers dying for Brown's parsimony in Afghanistan that is DEFINITELY stopping terrorism here. Ha!

Moraymint

Risible.

Next time the circus comes to town, let's have the police all dress up as clowns ... to gain an appreciation and understanding etc etc.

This sort of madness will be coming to an end soon as police forces like this one (http://tinyurl.com/ltcyew) discover the true meaning of priorities of work.

Dressing up to go on patrol is not essential to the safety and security of British people. It's political correctness gone mad.

TomTom

Police are an irrelevance nowadays. Better to restore the 1689 Bill of Rights and let Citizens be armed. The Police are just a branch of Social Services paid vastly more than their US counterparts

Alf Tupper

Does it matter what non-muslim people experience when they walk out in public to see their country being handed over to an alien culture?

AAE

But surely this sergeant has already experienced what it is to "walk out in public in clothing appropriate to her beliefs" - a police uniform!! Do police officers have to sigh a contract (like other public serctor employees) saying that they are personally and professionally committed to equality and diversity? It's too much to hope that Dave might roll back this or any other entrenchment of socialism.

Fred

Doesn't surprise me. Sheffield is a hot-bed of Common Purpose control.

David Shield

James - As a recently retired police officer I can tell that you are not up to speed with modern policing which is not about effective law enforcement or ensuring public order but gimmicks such as this. Schemes such as this assist the promotion process and do little for the public at large.They are encouraged by right on managements who wish to show there diversity credentials. Let us all hope that a new government will focus the senior ranks on law enforcement and not such pc trendiness. Making them more accountable to the local population would help!

Ping Pong

Sounds like a Two Ronnies sketch.

C Powell

"Is this really the best use of police time?"

Silly question: of course it isn't. Indeed, it's a gross waste of public money.

And, yes, it does imply that we accept that (a) this sort of dress is required by Islam when in fact it is required by a particular Saudi cultural interpretation of how Muslim women should behave; and (b) that Muslim women living in this country should not conform to the mores applicable in this country i.e. that we do not have our faces covered in public.

Public authorities should be doing the complete opposite i.e. making it clear that Saudi (or Algerian or Somalian or Pakistani) cultural values are not welcome here, especially when they are quite contrary to our basic beliefs about women's role and dignity and that it is for those who choose to live here to abide by our cultural/societal norms.

But, hey, we're sending men to fight in Afghanistan to provide Afghani women with education, according to the ineffable Harman, while simultaneously allowing Muslim girls here to be sheathed in black bin bags and "married off" at 16, thus effectively denying them a proper education or the rights which all UK citizens should have. What a topsy turvy world we live in.

David Ossitt

These days; we constantly hear on the radio or read in the press, of someone being stopped apprehended or censured in some way for speaking or acting in one way or another that has offended, upset or threatened some unknown individual.

Well I for one; have had enough of this politically correct, touchy-feely equality and diversity nonsense.

I want it to stop; and I think that I might have come up with a solution.

You see; every time I see or pass in the street an individual who is wearing one of these ghastly outfits that obscure all but the eyes of the person who is wearing it I am offended, I am deeply upset and I feel threatened.

When I switch on the television to watch programs such as question time, and see a disproportionate number in the audience wearing head scarves I am offended.

When I see a news programs that deal with knife crime, but then shows examples of only white boys, so as not to offend the blacks, I am deeply upset.

And so it is my firm intent in future to be one of the unknown individuals who write or telephone to complain.

Not that it will do any good; because it is only the minorities that are allowed to have feelings that can be hurt, we the majority can only be those who give offence.

Please let the revolution be in my lifetime.

Battle 2807

Why arent they out there catching some fucking criminals????
Elected police chiefs: it has to be the answer.

Tiberius

I think it's about time someone told all these people that this fixation with burquas and the rest breaks the second commandment.

See you anon

This is just dreadful, but things have got to get a lot worse before they get better. This is another turn of the screw.

A J Scott

This is shatteringly ridiculous beyond belief. If the police want to do amateur dramatics, let them do Pirates of Penzance for starters. Has the Home Secretary any comment on this nonsense? Actually, who IS the Home Secretary at present?

John Richardson

Huuum.
Yes,your only problem seems to be that you.....
1) Take the British Police seriously.
2) Even, still seem to imagine, their job is to 'maintain law and order'.

Where have you been for the last ten years ?

Talk to any Police Officer for a few minutes (off the record obviously).
Things will seem clearer.

Steve.W

The UK Police Farce, expensive aggressive and useless.

Austin Barry

Speaking through clenched teeth PC 49 of the South Yorkshire Police said that as part of 'In Your Shoes' scheme he had submitted to a circumcision which had given him a unique insight into Moslem male angst. He had though some reservations about the scheme, 'You know these politically correct Chief Constables people, give 'em an inch...".

mac

It's an elite special ops squad trialling tactics to counter Lord Ahmed's 10,000 vigilantes?

Or a rehearsal for a new Borat film?

Surely not the brainchild of an accelerated promotion, Common Purpose Assistant Chief Constable with a Sociology degree?

CH

James, you're up against it convincing the police this is a bad use of their time. For the last 12 years they have been bullied up hill and down dale by the race industry. Any suggestion of independence of thought in areas such as this has been ruthlessly cut out of the service. It does no good to hold up the individual officers to ridicule, they believe it wholeheartedly because anything else would make them 'Raaaaacists' the one unforgiveable accusation in the modern police service (regardless of the facts). This is why the police are so mind numbingly stupid when it comes to such matters, but it is (as usual) the politicians that have made it so.

quadratus

The statement could certainly be read as South Yorkshire police not behaving appropriately.

quadratus

The statement could certainly be read as South Yorkshire police not behaving appropriately.

Kittler

Do you ever get out of the house? Have you seen what's out there on the streets? All the goofy people, the obese, the misshapen, and the clothes worn. Compulsory burka's and a male equivalent appropriate for most.

Ade Rummer

Its going to be a long summer...

Jock

utterly ridiculous.... go to Saudi as a women and try getting into a car to drive it, anywhere, and see what it feels like to wear ALL that clobber and try to function as you would normally in, say, the UK and see how far you get before you're hauled over by the Saudi Police. Should be an informative experience too

Ken

Without doubt, Cameron's police minister better be a forensic purger.

Retraining the Police to be a Force rather than pathetic marxist social workers, will be be a prime task - but then the entire civil service needs a mega-dose of Epson salts.

James J

Like Social Workers and some other “professions” the police have become so steeped in sociobabble that they are not only not fit for purpose, but they have lost sight of what their Primary Purpose is: the reduction of crime and disorder.

Gil

This country has really gone mad. This story and Harman's rubbish...It really is over.

johnny come lately

Will Cameron rid the Police of their social working senior officers, who have no idea of policing. Then get the police back to detecting crime?

Stop the Kirkcaldy Coward

Perhaps this not too bright police officer might like to reconsider his phrase:

"I have gained an appreciation and understanding of what Muslim females experience when they walk out in public in clothing appropriate to their beliefs"

Perhaps this rather foolish and naive officer might like to look at the "beliefs" associated with the burqa, which is a symbol of wahabbi/salafist Islam:

- death for apostasy
- second class status for unbelievers (dhimmis)
- a womans testimony is half that of a man
- amputation for theft
- stoning for adultery.
- virulently homophobic

Perhaps the South Yorkshire Police might like to try and explain how they will accomodate these "cultural sensitivities"?.

This vicious, backward and virulently anti semitic ideology has no place in Britain, let alone being indulged by a stupid police force in some warped display of "cultural sensitivity".

When are these fools going to learn that this ideology is poisonous and the growth of it is a danger to British society.

It is not some quaint, insular culture, its a lethal supremacist ideology that is trying to undermine society.

South Yorkshire Police should stop indulging extremism!!.

(Meanwhile gun crime and killings are on the increase in Sheffield)

Tweedledum

If they believe in equality, South Yorkshire police should presumably now send out officers dressed as Hindus, Sikhs, Orthodox Jews, Christian monks and nuns, Buddhists and Rastafarians to find out how they feel. If not, why not?

Andy Leeds

Pathetic.

John Page

We pay for the police. What public accountability to do they have to their communities? Time for some democratic control.

Meanwhile, any reports of them dressing up as terrorised pensioners on a yob estate? Thought not.

Verity

"I have gained an appreciation and understanding of what Muslim females experience when they walk out in public in clothing appropriate to their beliefs.”

And this is part of police work why? Has she walked around in a bishop's cope? A naval uniform? A nun's habit? Those are all "appropriate to beliefs".

I have mentioned several times before that burqas are intelligent desert attire to keep the shifting sands of the Sahara out of eyes, nostrils, mouths and ears. The keffiyah serves a similar purpose for men. The big fold over the forehead is to keep the sun and the sand out of their eyes. And they wear it pulled over their noses and mouths.

Burqas and all that similar gear long, long predates Islam, which only began around 800 AD. Which raises the question, why are these British police officers, as well as these joke Muslim women, walking around the streets of Britain in desert nomad attire?

I really don't really care what Mohammad thought was proper attire for women, but to his credit, he never went in for fashion advice. Even a prophet has to be careful of commenting on women's clothes. All he ever said was women should dress "modestly". That was it.

These women who conspicuously wear these outfits - the showiness and attention-seeking of these gals is anything but modest and I doubt that Mohammad would have approved - would not be able to point to anywhere in the Q'ran or the Surahs where such instructions were handed out. Because it's not in their holy book.

It's an attention-seeking, in-yer-face attempt to bully the indigenes - and it wouldn't work were they not aided and abetted by the malign left. They would have been laughed off the streets by now with typical robust British humour if even a snicker were not threatened with a trip to the re-education camp.

Harry

"In Your Shoes"? What a load of piffle - will the Muslim women spend some time wearing a high visibility jacket? Of course not, that would be immodest.

Verity

Well said, John Page!

And, yes, elected police chiefs whose jobs are held at the pleasure of the voters certainly does concentrate minds.

Also, James's post went up at 6:27 p.m. It is now 0:10 a.m. and just one comment? Eleven hours later?

London Calling

Oh Goody ...dressing up time, if it improves public relations how about the police also playing Nuns on the Run, that Ive got to see, what with all the paperwork they have to do it may ease all the tension of their job on the frontline:)

Hot Fizz take 2...

Derek

This "In Your Bra" scheme - I assume these were male policemen? Before and After photos please.

Verity

James Strong, you are correct. The incomers "need to understand" their (unwilling) host community. They should be especially humble given that their beliefs are the antithesis of the developed West ... the developed West having begun, essentially with the Greeks over 2,000 years ago, thus trumping the giant backward step of Islam (in its tiny area of influence).

Verity

Tom Tom - strange that Tony Blair leapt in niftily after the horror of Dunblane, which was committed by a nutjob already known to the police, to disarm 60m Britons. So the police, not the citizens are now supreme and controlling.

Before Dunblane, anyone who wanted a pistol and passed the responsibility tests could have one. Sherlock Holmes and Watson routinely carried pistols. Lots of people did. It was normal to have a pistol to defend your home, as it is in most parts of the United States today.

Always, the aim of the left is to weaken the citzenry - its will and its arms. Britain is completely disarmed in both senses.

JohnAnt

I wasn't able to use my gym membership last week. I was told I couldn't enter the building as the later evening had been reserved for women only. And why?
"Religious reasons."
I asked, how many women were actually using the facilities this evening?
"Just a few."

JohnAnt

Also, someone should tell the copper that by no means all muslim women believe the burqa and jilbab are 'clothing appropriate to their beliefs.' Since when have the police adopted the Wahhabi cultural stance on Islam?

Verity

Also, I would like to see all Muslim police chiefs who have mysteriously risen to the top of our police services without apparent merit, spend a day in stilettos, with their legs shaven, in mini-skirts or shorts and silicone-stuffed tank tops standing around outside pubs.

Just to get the feeling of what it is like to walk around in stilettos and a mini skirt and a tank top. It's work experience.

As long as we have this daft, insulting experiement with indigenous Anglo-Saxon and Celtic women, which races own our country, pretending to be Muslim women ... it seems only fair that Muslim men should pretend to be Muslim women.

Steve.W

The UK Police Farce, expensive aggressive and useless.

logdon

Amateur plod playing am dram actors playing Muslim women? Is this what we pay our police for?

And, as others have pointed out why specifically Muslim females?

Could it be that because unless we toe the line they'll throw a wobbler? Or bomb a few more cities?

This is craven capitulation in the face of hidden and not so hidden threat.

And what do they know or really care about Islam? Pandering to the wilder shores of it’s excesses, whilst ignoring the moderates who actually like it here, like our way of life and fit in.

Women are dying in Iran to rid themselves of these seventh century abominations.

And are these police women aware that also in Iran, it is haram to execute a virgin, therefore women are ritually gang raped prior to execution the following morning?

That's the mindset which these buffoons are set on replicating right here in their pathetic attempts at getting down with the 'Muslim sisters'.

The burka, worn in Britain is nothing less than a symbol of separation. A political swipe and a thumbing nose at our norms of dress.

And by this tomfoolery yet more division is endorsed.

I hope Cameron is taking note.

Andre

Is the way to better policing to have elected county Sheriffs - like they do in the US? Local police forces like the South Yorkshire would then be responsible to the local citizenry. However what would happen if sharia-yearning locals formed a majority on the police authority? Which culture and set of values should the police in south Yorkshire be trying to uphold?

Jez

David
August 3rd, 2009 6:52pm;

"If it results in a more open relationship with the community, such as the recent case where the local police were told of a terrorist by the local community, then yes, it will pay off massively."

Come on pal, i've got to start work in 7 minutes. How do you expect me to do that if i'm creased up laughing at you and your ridiculous statement.

In fact i think my laughter will only be 'out laughed' by the Muslim community that have had these outragously stupid antics thrust upon them in the name of community cohesion.

Anyway, more to the point- why the hell shouldn't someone anywhere, from whatever 'community' in the UK tell the polce of an imminent terrorist attack... have they gone out of their way or something on this one?

What a joke.

cuffleyburgers

This is something that has been bothering me for some time - the police no longer dress like police.

When I was a boy, not so long ago, police wore proper uniforms and distinctive hats. Result, policing by consensus. Clips round the ears, bicycles and common sense.

Watch any public event nowadays and who is it dressed like paramilitary thugs, acting like boorish idiots, making life imposible for the decent family man and frequently turning a blind eye to yobbishness, faiing to dive into pools to rescue children etc and wearing these absurd high-visibility vests?

Ah yes, the sons of Peel - not.

Turning the police force into the armed wing of the social services has been a grave error which has done more than most to worsen the quality of life in this country.

Jennifer B

Those niqibs are very useful for shoplifting. Marks & Spencer underwear departments seem to be the favourite.

Ray Nal

I hope the Muslim women reciprocated by wearing jeans and crop tops for a day.

Hawkeye

I'm just waiting for a bunch of bank robbers to realise that the burqa is the perfect bank robbing attire. No more need for long leather coats to hide the shotguns, just keep them under the burqas.

Once they have fled, would the police dare to stop anyone in a burqa? Search them?

It's bound to happen and when it does I'll enjoy a hearty laugh whilst PC Plod tries to figure out how to be politically sensitive with bank robbing burqa wearers.

Roger Thornhill

I await calls for no Police to be permitted to be in the presence of a Muslim while "inappropriately" dressed.

So-called "Muslim" dress codes are cultural and many made up post the invention of the religion.

The pandering is pathetic. Islam means submission. It seems the police in Gods Country (or is that now "Allah's Country"?) have begun to submit.

It is not their right or remit to do so.

Barman at The Red Lion, Whitehall

@ Moraymint [7.32pm]

"Next time the circus comes to town, let's have the police all dress up as clowns ... "

My regulars have been convinced the Police are a bunch of clowns for years...

Barman at The Red Lion, Whitehall

@ Moraymint [7.23pm]

"Next time the circus comes to town, let's have the police all dress up as clowns ... "

My regulars have been convinced the Police are a bunch of clowns for years...

strapworld

I have it on good authority that Police Officers, In an attempt to get to know how ordinary members of the public feel will:-

Walk aroung naked to guage reactions, in an attempt to understand naturists!

Join the young people who enjoy getting drunk, by getting drunk themselves, in an attempt to understand drunken people.

Similarily they will now be allowed to 'experiment' with illegal drugs and join burglars on housebreaking expeditions, muggers on robbery exploits and even, under very special circumstances join with a murderer to understand just what he/she goes through up to the point of the murder.

The principles of policing have been ruined by Common Purpose, Social Workers, very weak senior officers who are all dancing to the Home Office tune, and a complete breakdown of discipline and morale within the Police Force (sorry Service!!).

Cameron must grasp this opportunity to create a National Police Force, with a Hard Disciplinarian in charge. Return the police to wearing the traditional uniform and not the shoddy mess many (especially in North Wales!)wear.

Stop the different bodies representing Black, Chinese, Polish,muslims, sikhs, gays, lesbians, and ensure that The Police Federation get on with the job they were created for!

Ensure That all police officers wear uniform and get back walking the streets. We shall see an immediate drop in crime.

Then Cameron should look at the Home Office that hot bed of 'trendy' thinking. They should send every civil servant and adviser working there to a different department and start from scratch again.

We want policing that was effective throughout the 18th Century from 1829 onwards until this Labour Party ruined policing as we know it. WOY Jenkins started it in the sixties. Sadly it was continued with the Tories and their Police and Criminal Evidence Act (which created the CPS) and led to Blair changing the whole thinking of policing.

The CPS should be cancelled as a dismal failure, more interested in protecting criminals than the public.

But One Police Force under One leader with dictatorial powers to ensure policing becomes what it was 'A beacon for the world'.

When you consider that the Home Office have an American Cop as an adviser on policing, one should shudder!

Ray

How about dressing the police up in dog collars, handing them a Bible and making them stand on a street corner in Alum Rock. Now that'll be an eye-opener.

logdon

Meanwhile........

August 3, 2009
Spencer: Muslims Persecute Christians

But will the world take notice? Ever?

In FrontPage this morning:

On Saturday, a frenzied mob of three thousand Muslims stormed the tiny Pakistani Christian village of Gojra. Enflamed by (unconfirmed) charges that a Christian had burned pages of the Qur’an, the mob burned down fifty homes, burned eight Christians alive, and wounded twenty others. Thousands of Christians fled the area.

Stronghold Barricades

Going undercover?

Were they only allowed plain clothes?

I fear engagement with communities takes more than dressing up, and has to become one where information and trust passes both ways

Euphorbia Bean

And when will the police try out dressing up in "hoodies"?

If the majority of people in the country are fed up with over-the-top so called political correctness (which is the impression one gets from everyone every day) who are the people actually insisting upon it?

HFC

Verity
August 3rd, 2009 11:30pm

Nobody could have said it better. It's time the police started to arrest all masked people on our streets.

Dr Tchock

When I hear the word "appropriate" I reach for my revolver...

Norman

An utterly pathetic article making a fuss about nothing. Worthy of Richard Littlejohn at his scenery chewing best. Get a life!

Ricky

Perhaps the rest of the population should start wearing a baraclava. If stopped by the police, we can claim they have intimidated us for our beliefs, our self protection and even our human rights.

Muslim women have told me that they have adopted these outfits, including the head scarves an a "political" statement or as a "uniform". This started quite recently, after the perceived attacks on Islam by the West.

It is not a religious requirement.

It therefore appears that our "police service" is supportive of politicised and militant uniforms.

Verity

I was going to join in the general irony on this esteemed thread by suggesting that all the male police in Britain spend a day dressed in full drag, make-up and wigs so they could walk in the stilettos of a cross dresser, but I fear they've probably already done it.

When we get a Conservative government - not, please God, under the self-proclaimed Heir to Blair, Common Purpose needs to be outlawed.

Does anyone know if Common Purpose is operating under the radar in any other countries? I wonder what it is about the English mindset that made it such fertile soil for such a toxic, fascist organisation to flourish.

Gerald

Perhaps it is time to start naming names. Who thought up this pathetic exercise. If they had to defend it in public they might just think it through. Their own friends and family would laugh at them. A brick short of a load. I bet nobody steps forward to own up.

David Ossitt

cuffleyburgers.

I totally agree.

Hawkeye.

"I'm just waiting for a bunch of bank robbers to realise that the burqa is the perfect bank robbing attire"

Making good their escape on mopeds no doubt.

Verity

Oh, for heaven's sake, Hawkeye! It's already happened. Several times. Where have you been?

Unusually, I disagree with Strapworld here - although I do agree that Common Purpose has been gnawing away at the police force - and with dispiriting success.

I'm sorry, Strapworld, but this statement chills the blood: "When you consider that the Home Office have an American Cop as an adviser on policing, one should shudder!"

You have been watching way, way too much TV. I've already recounted on this blog my experience in a large Texas city (with an elected chief of police) when sometime started trying to work my bedroom window open at three in the morning. This was a persistent individual and I called the police out three occasions over the ensuing hour, and the third time they turned up with a helicopter and a very, very bright light. They also asked me where I kept my gun, and when I showed them the drawer in the bedside table, they advised me to keep it on the surface for the night. They also advised me to shoot to kill. Their response time was around five minutes each time.

American police and Americans in general are strong believers in private property and law and order.

Given the appalling, destructive, malignant nature of policing in Britain, an American adviser isn't enough. You need an entire platoon of American cops spread throughout the country.

Verity

Euphorbia Bean asks who, given its absolute loathing in the UK, is insisting on this political "correctness", or mind control.

Google Common Purpose.

Kevyn Bodman

Gerald is right about naming names.
There is,or should be, a memo somewhere that authorises this dressing-up.
It should have a name/signature/initials on it.

Name the decision-maker.

It's one of the most effective ways of getting better decision making.

Two points must be made though:
it's an improvement but not a guarantee of perfection

some people are skilled at never ptting anything on paper and maintaining a cover of plausible deniability. Such people should be treated with the appropriate level of respect, i.e. very little.

Mirtha Tidville

Funny...I used to know the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire rather well, when he was of a lower rank and in another Force. He certainly didnt possess crack pot ideas like this,at that point in his career...trust me..Just goes to show how Liebour have twisted things....Truely the nasty party

graham

@ Stop The Kircaldy Coward, just wait until they grant turkey accession to the EU, you ain't seen nutten yet my good friend! (another 70 miilion?..mon dieu rodders mon dieu)

PauL

This is beyond parody.

Verity

Paul L says, (there may suddenly be 20 intervening comments given the sludge like speed of moderation) "This is beyond parody."

- So is this website.

It's been slapdash from Day One. Hours and hours and hours between comments, so a reader cannot link up the thoughts of others and follow an argument because there is a sudden avalanche of intervening comments which make no sense given their contexts.

Pete has done a yeoman's job, and has even managed to keep the site going when he was sick in bed, but there appears to be little commitment to improving the service to those kind enough to put thought into blogging free hereupon, without whom there would be no blog.

Derek

Roiger Thornhill at 8.40 am need wait no longer. This from an article by the Middle East scholar, Daniel Pipes: "A SECOND example of imposing Shari'a on non-Muslims comes from southeast England. The Avon and Somerset police force, which patrols Bristol and Bath as well as surrounding areas, has just issued hijabs to female officers. The hijabs, distributed at the initiative of two Muslim groups and costing £13 apiece, come complete with the constabulary's emblem.

Now, issuing hijabs as part of uniforms in Great Britain is nothing new - the London police led the way in 2001, followed by other police forces, at least one fire brigade and even the furniture chain Ikea. What sets the Avon and Somerset hijabs apart from these others is their being intended not just for pious Muslim female staff but also for non-Muslim staff, in particular for their use upon entering mosques.

Rashad Azami of the Bath Islamic Society finds it "highly pleasing" that the constabulary took this step. One of the seven non-Muslim officers to receive a hijab of her very own, Assistant Chief Constable Jackie Roberts, calls it "a very positive addition to the uniform and one which I'm sure will be a welcome item for many of our officers."

Dhimmitude is the term Bat Ye'or coined to describe subservience to Shari'a by non-Muslims. Assistant Chief Constable Roberts's enthusiasm for the hijab might be called "advanced dhimmitude." "Hijab bullies" (as David Rusin of Islamist Watch calls them) who coerce non-Muslim females to cover up are just one stripe of Islamist imposing Shari'a ways on the West. Other Islamists focus on impeding the uncensored discussion of such topics as Muhammad and the Koran or terrorist financing; still others work to bring taxpayer-funded schools, hospitals and jails into conformity with Islamic law, not to speak of taxi cabs and municipal swimming pools. Their efforts don't always succeed but in the aggregate, they are rapidly shifting the premises of Western, and especially British, life. " (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249275692072&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Mark

Two questions James:

a. Do you really think it isn't a good idea for the police to get to understand the communities they police better?

b. Sure, the words you quote don't stand up that well to a forensic examination, but take a step back and isn't their overall intended meaning pretty clear, i.e. that it gave an understanding of the perspective of some people who believe in going round in a particular form of dress?