This week, former ex-Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, made some comments about Muslim women who, adhering to traditional Islamic values, still wear burkas in public.  Almost immediately, there was a public outcry, but more importantly a further, widening of the rift between members of the British Conservative Party over this most trivial of matters.

Most trivial of matters?  How dare you, sir!  I argue that it is.  The other day, I mentioned that free speech is the most important thing we have in this and other democratic nations, and as long as hate speech is not involved, we should adhere to that.  But does Mr. Johnson’s comments cross the line into hate speech?

Well, here’s the thing: it depends how you interpret the comments.  Is it a simple insult to the women that wear them, in describing in less than flattering terms what they look like?  Or is it, as I suspect, more of a veiled (ho ho ho!) comment on the bullying tactics of Muslim men within the religion who make women wear them, having already stated in his Telegraph column that they are made to do so on the basis of no scriptural evidence whatsoever in the Qu’ran. 

It’s more a case of “why are you making your beautiful women look this way without any authority from your holy book?” than hate speech.  Therefore, in the spirit of free speech, I see no reason for Boris to apologise for his writing, although I would expect him to offer some sort of explanation to that effect if indeed that is the effect.

But the biggest fallout from this most trivial of matters is within the Conservative Party itself.  Most are demanding that he be thrown out of the party!  Talk about not having a sense of humour!  Only Jacob Rees-Mogg, who else?, has leapt to Johnson’s defence.  I don’t think even Rees-Mogg gets it, but at least he has realised that Johnson was not criticising the women, but the religion that demands they wear them – basically so that other men don’t drool over them.

Please, both of you, don’t begin demanding that I am a racist and I should remove my comment.  Please don’t begin accusing me of being a Tory.  I am neither of those things, but I do leap to the defence of anyone who is being denied their right to free speech, Tory or not.  This world would be a sad place indeed if we all agreed. x