The ruling Labour Party in the UK has launched a sustained campaign against Muslim women wearing the burqa, on the basis of a very disingenuous argument that it is a symbol of ‘separate and distinct identity’, which obstructs ‘social cohesion and integration’ of the community with mainstream British society. Labour leaders, including Gordon Brown who is at present in India, have made tall claims about the essence of British democracy lying in its tolerance of diversity. If Britain is indeed the home of ‘great democratic values’, Muslim women in that country should be allowed to choose whether they wish to wear the veil or not.What justification can there possibly be for the growing intolerance of diverse cultural freedoms in the home of ‘democracies’? It should be clearly understood that the whole social context in Western democracies has become quite inhospitable, unfriendly, even hostile, towards Muslims, particularly after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Samuel Huntington’s totally flawed notion of the clash of civilisations has become a harsh reality for an increasingly intolerant West. Following the history of First Principles, Western democracies are increasingly imposing majoritarian values on their minorities. There is no other rationale for targeting the ‘Other Muslim’ except that he/ she has to be made to conform to ‘superior’ Western values.In this country, we had Hindu rashtravadis also believing that in Hindu India, Muslims or Christians have to ‘integrate’ themselves with the country’s mainstream cultural ethos. The majority thus becomes the custodian of ‘universal cultural values’ and the minority is expected to conform to them. Islam has become a whipping boy in Western countries, and every undemocratic and anti-democratic activity gets justified in the name of fighting terrorism, which has become synonymous with anti-Islamism. The growing intolerance of cultural diversities in Western countries is either a product of a ‘fear complex’ or a desire to completely ‘homogenise’ their societies on the basis of their self-belief that their cultural values are ‘superior’ to all other cultures, especially Islamic culture. Incidentally, it has been an integral part of Western empire building to impose ‘superior’ cultural values over the colonised, ‘barbarian’ hordes. The last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century has witnessed a revival of the old dream of empire building, and wars are being waged to ‘export democracy’ to the ‘barbarian’, Oriental world. This is the real explanation for the demand that Muslims should behave and live like the majority community in their adopted countries. The White Man’s civilising mission is back on the agenda. The wearing of a veil is not the real issue. The real issue is the hegemonising mission of empire builders like Bush and Blair.
