The public has spoken

It happened again. 

Sunday Morning Live put a question to its audience - "Do Muslim veils deepen divisions?" - and the audience gave 'the wrong answer'.

Samira Ahmed said they'd had "a huge response". 

The result? 

95% said 'yes, they do' and just 5% said 'no, they don't'.

After the result was given, Samira read out four e-mails on the subject (which she'd presumably had handed to her, as she was too busy presenting the programme to have chosen them herself). They didn't reflect the result of the public vote. Two said 'yes' and two said 'no'. 

Veiling the argument?

Not wearing a niqab

I see that Radio 4's Sunday will be discussing what certainly seems to have been the 'hot topic' of the week (other than red squirrels making a bit of a return) - namely the Muslim veil controversy:

Shelagh Fogarty explores where it [a national debate on the subject] may lead with Dr Sara Silvestri, from City University, London and Mirina Paananen, a student at the As-Suffa Institute in Birmingham.

Given that Mirina Paananen, a Muslim convert who wears the niqab, is against 'banning the burqa' and that Dr Silvestri is also against 'banning the burqa', it seems unlikely that we're going to get much in the way of strong disagreement here. 

I suspect that those hoping to hear a less one-sided debate will have to go elsewhere - somewhere , perhaps, like Harry's Place, where Sarah AB's thoughtful take is prompting a good deal of interesting discussion below the line.