A CONTROVERSIAL Muslim leader in Oxford has backed French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to ban full-face veils.

Dr Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford and Imam of the Summertown Muslim congregation, described the burka and niqab as “a modern fad”.

He said the veils, which are worn by a minority of Muslim women, and cover the entire body leaving only a slit for the eyes in a niqab, and a mesh eye screen in a burka, had only started emerging in the last 10 or 20 years and had no basis in The Koran.

Dr Hargey said: “The Koran says both men and women in public should be dressed modestly.

“But this notion of a full-face veil is a cultural tradition and a tribal custom that has no place in Islam.”

The Imam has previously come under fire from mainstream Muslim leaders for his views on the roles of women in society, allowing a female Imam to lead the Friday prayers to a mixed congregation, and carrying out marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men.

Meco also contributed towards a Buckinghamshire school’s legal costs when it was taken to court by a schoolgirl who wanted to wear a full veil in lessons.

Dr Hargey said allowing Muslim women to completely cover their faces was against principles of equal rights, and said he would not be allowed to go into a bank, for example, wearing a balaclava or motorcycle helmet.

He added: “In this society it is considered customary to show your face in public. This is important for both identification and security purposes.”

However, Dr Hojjat Ramzy, chairman of Oxford’s all-Muslim Iqr School, disagreed.

He said: “People have the right to wear what they want in this country. We need to keep this freedom. We cannot restrict ourselves like this. It’s very important that people wear burkas if they want to.

“It’s their tradition. It’s the same as a nun wearing a veil; no one asks why they are wearing it.”

In an address to the French Parliament, Mr Sarkozy backed the setting up of a Parliamentary commission on the issue of full Islamic veils and said the burka was “not welcome in France”.

Dr Hargey, who has written to the French Government to back the plans, said he first saw niqabs and burkas worn by women in Oxford about five years ago, but now he was regularly seeing them in the city and elsewhere in the county.

He added: “When people say they want to wear the burqa, they need to give the Koranic justification for it – which I have yet to see.”