British police criticized for dressing female officers in full-body Muslim veils for day

September 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Scotland Yard has advertised for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender police to guard the Queen. According to the Daily Express, the Metropolitan Police wants officers from "special groups" to -volunteer for armed duty at Windsor Castle and Balmoral.

September 9th, 2009 Muslim woman presses French panel for burqa banPARIS — Her voice trembling with emotion, the leader of an advocacy group for Muslim women and girls urged a French parliamentary panel on Wednesday to press for laws that would ban the wearing of Islamic body- and face-covering veils. Sihem Habchi appeared as the first witness before a newly created parliamentary group studying Islamic clothing such as burqas and niqabs — part of France's effort to integrate its growing Muslim population while preserving its heritage and secular roots.

August 14th, 2009 LONDON - A British minister Friday defended his decision to walk out of a Muslim wedding where men and women were separated, saying such practices ran against his efforts to build "inclusion." Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick and his wife walked out of the marriage ceremony in his east London constituency - home to a large number of Bangladeshis - after discovering they would have to sit in separate rooms. He told BBC radio Friday that such practices promoted "exclusion rather than inclusion," which his government was trying to build in areas like east London.

August 4th, 2009 LONDON - British tax payers have expressed their ire over two female police sergeants dressing up as Muslim women at their expense. According to The Sun , the two female sergeants donned burkas and a PCSO wore a headscarf to see how people reacted as they strolled the streets.

July 28th, 2009 LONDON - In a bid to improve their relations with Muslim community, women police officers in Britain are being given head scarves to be worn when they enter mosques or other places of worship. Officers in Avon and Somerset are being issued two versions of the head coverings, one to match the black of the police officers' uniform and one to match the blue uniforms of the - community support officers.

July 8th, 2009 French lawmaker suggests gradual ban on burqasPARIS — French legislators took up the touchy subject of face-covering, body-length Muslim veils such as the burqa Wednesday, as a leading lawmaker softened his calls for an outright ban by suggesting the garments could be forbidden gradually. France's questioning of the veils has raised hackles among some Muslim groups abroad and prompted threats from an al-Qaida affiliate based in Algeria.

July 1st, 2009 France vigilant after al-Qaida burqa warningPARIS — French officials were on guard Wednesday after an al-Qaida affiliate threatened vengeance for President Nicolas Sarkozy's criticism of the face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women. France is maintaining "very great vigilance" toward actions and statements by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or North Africa, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in a briefing.

June 23rd, 2009 French parliament creates group to study burqaPARIS — The French parliament created a commission Tuesday to study the wearing of body-covering burqas and niqabs in France, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Islamic garments turn women into prisoners. The 32-member commission, with members from France's four major political parties, will hold hearings that could lead to legislation banning burqas from being worn in public.

June 6th, 2009 LONDON - Caroline Flint, who resigned as Britain's Europe Minister, has accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of using his women ministers as mere 'female window dressings.' "Several of the women attending Cabinet, myself included, have been treated by you as little more than female window dressing," Flint wrote in her resignation letter. "I am not willing to attend Cabinet in a peripheral capacity any longer," The Daily Express quoted Flint, as saying.

June 5th, 2009 LONDON - A woman state secretary who resigned in fury from the government of Gordon Brown Friday accused the British prime minister of using women as "female window dressing". Caroline Flint, a state secretary for Europe in the Foreign Office, made her remarks in a resignation letter after she was reportedly passed over for promotion in Friday's reshuffle.

May 8th, 2009 LONDON - Brit women cops have been ordered not to wear wired bras on duty, as such undergarments might prove to be dangerous in case the officers get shot. A Home Office memo has cautioned that metal objects worn under protective armour can be driven into the body when an officer is hit.

April 28th, 2009 LONDON - A Muslim-owned jewellery shop has decided to ban customers wearing veils after being targeted by robbers disguised as Islamic women. ccording to The Telegraph, any one entering ATAA Jewellers in Glasgow must reveal their faces under planned new rules to protect staff from further attacks.

March 28th, 2009 LONDON - A British Police scheme aimed at spotting children vulnerable to Islamic radicalisation has identified 200 school children, including some as young as 13 years, as potential terrorists. Sir Norman Bettison, Britain's senior most police officer in charge of terror prevention, revealed this shocking data of potential child extremists to The Independent.

March 23rd, 2009 LIMA - A nightmare is coming true for many macho motorists in the Peruvian capital as the entire traffic police force will soon be female. Since surveys show female officers in Lima to be far stricter and - more importantly - less bribable than males, they will be given complete control of the chaotic streets in the city of some 8 million inhabitants, the municipal traffic police announced recently.

January 26th, 2009 NOIDA - A Muslim body in this Uttar Pradesh district Tuesday asked the authorities not to bury in Indian soil two alleged Pakistani terrorists, who were killed in a shootout with the police Sunday. In its memorandum to the district magistrate and the police chief of Noida, All India Mili Tanzim Alfaiz (AIMTA) said it would not allow the government to bury the bodies of the terrorists in India.