David Cameron makes hijab joke to gay magazine
Conservative leader David Cameron had to backtrack over a joke he made in an interview with popular gay magazine Attitude.
In an hour long interview with the Tory leader, tipped to become Britain’s next Prime Minister, Cameron was questioned about being inclusive of minority groups.
Talking about the appearance of Muslim peer Sayeeda Warsi on BBC series ‘Question time’ Cameron quipped:
“[Warsi] will have sent an incredibly positive message to young Muslim girls and women all across Britain. Many of them had possibly been told that public service and public life wasn’t for them.
“She will have just blown the hijab off them.”
The Conservative party leader immediately realised what he had said and quickly backtracked:
“Sorry, I shouldn’t say that, I’ll get into trouble.”
Attitude writer Johann Hari, a known critic of Cameron, spent an hour with the Tory leader grilling him about his voting record.
Cameron then went on to comment on how the Church of England should change their attitudes on homosexuality:
“I think the church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through – sorting this issue out and recognising that full equality is a bottom line full essential.”
In 2006 ex-foreign secretary Jack Straw sparked outrage when he revealed in an interview that he asked women to remove the hijab.
The Blackburn MP said in an interview that the veil was a “visible statement of separation and of difference” and he asked women visiting his surgery to consider removing it.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission said the Commons leader’s request was selective discrimination.
The interview with David Cameron can be read in full in the March edition of Attitude magazine.
