The post you are reporting:
Courtesy of the Times.
A prominent imam has defended Boris Johnson in a row over the burka as Ruth Davidson joined senior Tories in criticising the former foreign secretary. Mr Johnson faces mounting pressure to say sorry, including from the prime minister, after comparing women in face-covering veils to bank robbers and letterboxes.
However, Taj Hargey, the imam at Oxford Islamic Congregation, said Mr Johnson should “not apologise for telling the truth” and, in fact, did not go far enough. In a letter to The Times, Dr Hargey said there was “no Koranic legitimacy” for the burka, adding that it was “a nefarious component of a trendy gateway theology for religious extremism and militant Islam”. Dr Hargey, a frequent critic of the burka, is best known for allowing men and women to pray together and for discouraging Muslim-only schools.
Ms Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, called for Mr Johnson to say sorry, in spite of her agreeing with the wider argument in his article for The Daily Telegraph that face-covering veils should not be banned. Speaking in East Lothian, she said: “I think that this wasn’t an off-the-cuff slip... he knew exactly what he was doing and I think it crossed from being provocative and starting a debate and actually it became rude and gratuitous.”
