This could be the trigger for the grim spiral that produced riots in the north of England five years ago. Only this time the conflict would be much worse. We need to chill.

— Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality in the UK, writing in The Sunday Times about increasingly hostile race relations in the UK. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, sparked the controversy by making a number of comments in which he expressed his reluctance about speaking with women wearing the niqab, more commonly known as the veil or the Islamic headscarf which only leaves the eyes uncovered. Jack Straw elaborated on his comments in subsequent interviews, explaining his belief that “Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers, people acknowledging each other in the street, being able to pass the time of day, sharing just experiences in the street, and that is just made more difficult if people are wearing a veil…that’s just a fact of life.” Far from ushering in a polite debate, the veil — which Prime Minister Tony Blair has called “a mark of separation,” — is being blamed for widening the racial divide.

Mimi Hanaoka