Jack Straw's comments are not racist. He is entitled to air them without having that charge levelled at him. Banks asks people wearing motorcycle helmets to remove them but fully veiled Muslim women can do as they please. Why? Last year, Bluewater banned hoodies because they concealed faces so why are fully veiled Muslim women allowed to do as they please?
The veil has nothing to do with Islam. The Qur'an directs that women must "lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers and a few others" (Qur'an 24:31). Muhammad was specific and said to Asma, a daughter of his first successor, Abu Bakr, that "when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, it does not suit her that she displays her parts of body except this and this, and pointed to her face and hands (this is from a book 32 by Abu Dawud).
The total covering started initially with the Bedouin tribes in Arabia who wanted to protect themselves from sandstorms. Mysogenists in these cultures then decided to use it as an opportunity to keep their women in their place, particularly with the rise of Islam. You have to also remember that in Islam, women are inferior to men and the veil reinforces that. Muhammad married Aisha, when she was 6yo and consummated the marriage when she was only 9yo. She had not even started menstruating. Yet millions believe that this fraud was a prophet.
What people in the West need to wake up to is that Islam means submission. There are a lot of Muslims who want the West to submit to their will as well as their way of life and little by little they are endeavouring to usurp Western culture, traditions etc with their own whilst the West allows this because they are paralysed through fear of being accused of racism.
Britons needs to wake up and reclaim their country. My mother is from Jamaica and says that it is time that the Muslims who do not want to integrate go and live in a Muslim country. I agree with her. Look at that idiot last week who condemned John Reid for entering Muslim areas - he claims over £700 in benefits. If the British way of life and the British people are so bad, surely who would not want anything from it or the people.
It is interesting, that Saudi Arabia does not allow fully veiled women in public buildings so why are the women in this country choosing to denigrate themselves in this way? In my opinion they do so for political reasons.