Debate about the cross of St. George was worth having
The year 2006 witessed some of the fiery debates on the issues surrounding British multiculturalism. While the Islamists and their leftist friends used the threat of Islamophobia on those who tried to bring a critical perspective on their ideological agenda, those of us genuinely worried about the Western values that inform the British way of life finally succeeded in creating a meaningful debate on multiculturalism.
One writer, Deborah Orr, lauded Jack Straw for unveiling the attempts to veil the debate:
''[The] debate about the cross of St George was worth having, if only because it served to raise the curtain on more troubling issues about multiculturalism and integration. Debate about the veil - itself a veiled attempt to talk about radical Islam's place in a modern secular society - was proven to be necessary simply by the way that such a huge reservoir of opinion was unleashed by Jack Straw and his disingenuous article in a local newspaper.''
