IN VIEW of the Prime Minister’s parliamentary statement that the police will be given powers to ban suspected criminals from concealing their faces in public, it is now the perfect time to implement a comprehensive proscription of facial covering in the UK.

In this way, Britain will emulate France and Belgium by making it illegal for anyone to hide their identity in public.

It is utterly sexist and completely discriminatory that burqah-clad Muslim women are permitted to conceal their identity in public on wholly spurious ‘religious’ grounds, but other people of different faith and sex will not be allowed the same liberty.

Muslims who claim that face-masked women are not engaging in criminality should be reminded that these indoctrinated females only perpetuate social apartheid and community exclusion while harming their own health and bringing Islam into grave disrepute.

It is high time that British law renders all forms of public facial masking, for whatever pretext, totally illegal.

Anything less will smack of sexist discrimination.

The Government has a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by banning all face-masks: tackling feral criminality and inhibiting Muslim segregationism.

Dr T HARGEY Chairman, Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford