The Hijabification of the United Kingdom

Few things are more loathsome than the sight of the hijab on our streets. They are everywhere. Barely a walk down a UK high street will be accompanied without the sight of at least half a dozen hijabs per mile – maybe more. But these are there simply on a stochastic basis, resulting from the increasing number of Muslims in our country. I think there are areas of the UK where the hijab is being strategically placed to create an impression of our country which is not, strictly speaking, accurate.

I find the sight of the hijab nauseating. It indicates to me that our culture is being undermined but it also represents a disgusting attitude towards women. Some Muslim women say that they are happy, even prefer, to wear the hijab. Good for them; I don’t believe them.

Other women in the Muslim ‘community’ are under peer pressure to conform to the Islamic norm and get with the programme. This is particularly the case among young women, those still at school and college, where young girls are increasingly hijabbing up. I know one young Muslim lady, under no pressure from her family and not approved by her mother, who now sports a hijab. It’s a uniform indicating conformity.

In addition to the general hijabification of our country, is the strategic positioning of women in hijabs. I ‘deplaned’ at London’s utterly pointless City Airport recently where you must take the steps down from the plane and cross the tarmac. I was greeted at the door by a young lady in a black hijab and, inside the arrivals hall, there was another similarly clad lady at one of the information desks. ‘Welcome to the UK’, I thought.

This must be deliberate as – and I fly a great deal – I see this wherever I arrive ‘into’ the UK: London Heathrow, London Gatwick, or Manchester. Inevitably there will be a woman, maybe a few, with hijabs shouting instructions about where various nationalities must go, often in a barely comprehensible accent.

Likewise, when leaving these airports, the security area will be well stocked with women in hijabs. Again, shouting instructions that are hard to understand with never a ‘please’ or a ‘thank you’. The Muslim population of the UK may be around five percent, but the percentage of Muslims working at our airports must be many times that.

I have just Googled it and, apparently – contrary to what I thought (hoped perhaps) – you do not need to be a UK citizen to work in airport security. You must, however, be a UK citizen to work in passport control which is part of Border Force. However, it is obvious from the visible profile and accents of the people I encounter here that, while they may be UK citizens, they may have only recently become one. From the hijabs on display, it is clear that many are followers of a religion that does not share any of our UK values (except the execrable notion of ‘multiculturalism’… perhaps).

The question arises as to ‘why?’ Are these jobs so terrible that only migrants will do them? Hong Kong is a reasonably multi-ethnic place with an increasingly prominent Muslim ‘community’; there is a major mosque on Nathan Road, the main drag of Kowloon. There are thousands of Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong. Do you ever see a hijab or even a non-Chinese Hong Kong person working at security, passport control or customs in Hong Kong International Airport? That was a rhetorical question.

Why do we seem so relaxed about staffing airport security with people who may not necessarily have the best interests of our country at heart? Why, on the approach to passport control, where all the staff must at least be UK citizens, do we have a welcoming (and I use the word ‘welcoming’ advisedly) party of people many of whom are dressed as if you were entering a country in the Middle East?

Obviously, it is all part of normalising that completely unnecessary piece of headgear, the hijab, in our country. I hardly think that Border Force and airport security firms specify that applicants wearing hijabs will be favoured for employment, but they assuredly do – in the name of DEI – welcome people of all backgrounds.

I imagine if there is a choice between a woman in a hijab and an English rose, that the hijabi wins every time. Imagine the fuss if someone thought they had been discriminated against for wearing a hijab? The bother is probably just not worth it. I imagine, also, but without proof, that when it comes to hiring security staff that there is probably a hijab on both sides of the table. It’s a stitch up and no mistake.

Roger Watson is a retired academic, editor and writer. He writes regularly for a range of conservative journals including The Salisbury Review and The European Conservative. He has travelled and worked extensively in the Far East and the Middle East. He lives in Kingston upon Hull, UK. His Substack can be found here.