Muslim women exempt from �90 national ID cards.

[Gromit]

Asian women who wear a veil will not have to pay �90 for an ID card like the rest of us.

"Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is considering a request to exempt some muslim women from national Identity Card scheme when it is introduce next year.

The Muslim Council of Britain argues that muslim women who wear the burqa should not have to carry the ID card as it would be useless for identification purposes.

A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of cloaking the entire body.

Miss Posal Dafil Roy a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said "The main item of identification on the cards will be a photograph. Obviously this is useless when the subject is wearing a garment covering the face. I have asked Jacqui Smith to consider an exemption, and the Home Office have indicated that an exemption is likely to be granted.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the MCB recently met with the Home Secretary at the East London Mosque, and he is understood to have also pressed for the exemption.

The Government's timetable for introduction of the cards will see them gradually introduced from January 2009. The cards are expected to cost about �90 and every citizen will have to have one by 2012."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7281368.stm

Is this a dangerous loophole that needs to be closed? or Just facing up to reality that the ID scheme is unworkable for these ladies?

[Ethel]

Your header is misleading

The Home Secretary is duty bound to consider such requests but it doesn't mean it will happen.

[Myriad2112]

If they want to walk around with a cloth on thier head, they can go and do it somewhere else. I think they look horrible, mind you I heard that most of them are so ugly that they're better off like that.

[JUNKMAN]

Check the spokesman;s name

[WaldoMcFroog]

Poisson D'Avril!

[factor-fiction]

Posal Dafil Roy=April Fools Day

[Ethel]

The man from the Muslim is Roy Dafil Posal, according to that article.

An anangram of April Fools' Day

[sp1814]

Yeah...and the big article in Metro today about the new BMW which has electrified wheel arches so that when dogs pee on them, they get an electric shock - I'm thinking that's another April Fool's joke too.

[flip_flop]

sp, considering the technology for the BMW was developed by a Dr Hans Zoff, I think it is probably a safe bet.

[sp1814]

I didn't clock at all.

It was only when I got into work and someone reminded me it was April 1st that I put two and two together.

[Ice.Maiden]

Oh I don't believe this! And i've spent all morning sewing up twop nice garments as well....

[China Doll]

I'll need to know whether it is or isn't as my mother will kill me if I get her dog electrocuted... mind you, I tend to encourage it more around chelsea tractors in all fairness.

[B00]

What a stupid April fool joke!

There's already ill feeling amongst some people about Burka wearing and to make this kind of 'joke' about it is in really poor taste.

[B00]

stomps on the rolling eyes

Shurrup you :-)

[Ice.Maiden]

It's a thought though, isn't it? Seriously. If Muslim ladies were asked to raise their veils for ID purposes - which could be anywhere, from shops to queueing for a TV show - there wouldn't be much point in wearing one at all. Joke or not, it could never be enforced.

[anotheoldgit]

April Fool joke maybe, but will the Muslims find it funny?

Shame on the BBC, there will be a mass burning of TV licences on the streets.

[Gromit]

It is not the BBC AOG. The link is a fake I knocked up this morning. Any fatwahs are coming Gromits way, not the beebs.