LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May backed calls on Tuesday for her former foreign minister Boris Johnson to apologize for disparaging comments he made about Muslim women wearing burqas - but he branded his critics “ridiculous.”
May said his remarks “have clearly caused offense” and agreed with the chairman of her Conservative party, Brandon Lewis, who had asked Johnson to apologize.
“I do think that we all have to be very careful about the language and terms we use. And some of the terms Boris used describing people’s appearance obviously have offended,” the prime minister said.
“What’s important is do we believe people should have the right to practice their religion and, in the case of women and the burqa and niqab, to choose how they dress.”
In a column in Monday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said women wearing the full face veil looked like “bank robbers” or “letter-boxes,” prompting accusations of Islamophobia.
But the former top diplomat, who has a reputation for causing controversy and quit May’s cabinet last month in protest at her Brexit plan, refused to back down.
“It is ridiculous that these views are being attacked — we must not fall into the trap of shutting down the debate on difficult issues,” a source close to Johnson told reporters.
“We have to call it out. If we fail to speak up for liberal values then we are simply yielding ground to reactionaries and extremists.”
In his article, Johnson said he opposed a ban on face-covering veils, but added that it was “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter-boxes.”
His remarks drew condemnation from former colleagues.
Junior foreign minister Alistair Burt told the BBC: “I would never have made such a comment, I think there is a degree of offense in that, absolutely right.”
Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi, a former party chairwoman, accused Johnson of adopting the “dog-whistle” tactics of right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s former top aide.
Johnson has been in direct communication with Bannon in recent months, according to media reports.
Warsi said Johnson was hoping to attract support from right-wing Conservatives for an eventual leadership bid, and called for an independent inquiry into Islamophobia in the party.
“It is crass and it must stop, and it must be condemned by the leadership right from the prime minister down.”
But Johnson received support from some quarters, with Conservative MP Nadine Dorries saying he “did not go far enough.”
“Any clothing a woman is forced to wear which hides both her beauty and her bruises should be banned and have no place in our liberal, progressive country,” she said.
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UK politician Boris Johnson draws ire with burqa comments
UK politician Boris Johnson draws ire with burqa comments
- Prime Minister Theresa May calls on Johnson to apologize
- Johnson said he opposed banning burqas, but described them as looking like 'letter boxes’
US heading to ‘authoritarianism’, warns Human Rights Watch
- HRW: US President Donald Trump has shown ‘blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations’
WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump was turning the United States into an authoritarian state as democracy declines globally to its lowest ebb in four decades.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
Trump’s return to the White House has intensified a “downward spiral” on human rights that was already under pressure from Russia and China, the New York-based advocacy and research group said in its annual report.
“The rules-based international order is being crushed,” HRW said.
In the United States, the group said, Trump has shown “blatant disregard for human rights and egregious violations.”
In descriptions that would have been unthinkable in the US section of its previous annual reports, the group pointed to the deployment of masked, armed agents — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency — which has carried out “hundreds of unnecessarily violent and abusive raids.”
“The administration’s racial and ethnic scapegoating, domestic deployment of National Guard forces in pretextual power grabs, repeated acts of retaliation against perceived political enemies and former officials now critical of him, as well as attempts to expand the coercive powers of the executive and neuter democratic checks and balances, underpin a decided shift toward authoritarianism in the US,” the report said.
Human Rights Watch repeated its finding that the United States engaged in enforced disappearances — a crime under international law — by sending 252 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
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