Excerpt:
Richard Dawkins has said that burqas personally offend him, spoke out in favour of Palestine and said that the Islamic world had "stagnated" since the Middle Ages.
However, the God Delusion author added that his personal opinions shouldn't make a difference to how other people choose to behave.
"I'm not in favour of a burqa ban, it seems to be a violation of individual liberty," Dawkins during a Newsnight interview with Evan Davis. "When I see a woman in a full burqa with just a slit [motions to eyes] I feel personally offended. But it's an important part of what I believe that what I personally feel is irrelevant – it doesn't matter what I feel. Nobody else should abide by what I feel, and that applies on the other side as well."