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BY TAREK FATAH

Just over 11 years ago, then-British foreign secretary Jack Straw wrote about his discomfort with the Islamic face-covering niqabs and burkas his constituents chose to wear while meeting him.

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What followed his article in the Guardian was a raging controversy around the Islamic World and the West in 2006-07 that is an illustrative guide to how far western society — led by its liberal and left-wing politicians, feminists and academics — has regressed.

Has the fear of Islamic terror made them all into latter day Chamberlains who dreaded Hitler’s Nazi Wehrmacht?

Eleven years ago, the times were a bit less politically correct. Even the liberal Toronto Star allowed for criticism of the Islamic veil. Its columnist Rosie Dimanno wrote this on Oct. 25, 2006:

“Bible-thumping is repellent, whether applied to women or children or homosexuals or any other group whose behaviour is construed as sinful. Qur’an thumping should be no less unsavoury. So spare me what that holy book has to say about veiling women, especially when even Islamic scholars are divided on it.”