British Magistrate Reprimanded Over Conduct Regarding Niqab

In Britain, Justice Secretary Jack Straw yesterday issued a formal reprimand to Manchester magistrate Ian Murray who last June walked out of a hearing in a criminal case in which the Muslim woman charged with wrecking her council house with graffiti appeared in court wearing a niqab-- a full face veil. Yesterday's Daily Mail and today's Daily Express report that Straw, in his role as Lord Chancellor, ordered lay magistrate Murray (a taxi driver) to get further training in judicial procedure. While Straw himself asks women wearing a niqab to remove it when dealing with him, here the Judicial Communications Office said that the reprimand was because of the magistrate's in-court behavior, not because of his attitude toward the niqab.