CANTERBURY, England – The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Rowan Williams, doesn’t have a problem with female Muslim teachers wearing a full-faced veil in class.

His controversial remarks came in a recent interview with the Christian think tank Theos and are igniting another national debate about the niqab – the veil worn by women of the Muslim faith.  Last year British Home Office minster Jeremy Browne set off a similar debate when he proposed a ban on the niqab in schools and other places, the Telegraph reports.

The issue is a hot topic because schools in England have grappled with female Muslim teachers who insist on wearing their veil. In 2007, Aishah Azmi, 24, lost an appeal against an employment tribunal’s decision that school officials at the Headfield Church of England’s ban on wearing a veil was not discrimination, according to the Telegraph.

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Williams’ recent comments were in the context of his new book, “The Edge of Words.” The book ponders the meanings of words in discussions about God, the news site reports, but Williams writes that there’s more to words than a superficial meaning.

“As I learn a language, I learn not only to identify objects, I learn how to interact with another speaker,” Williams said. “We all know what happens when people don’t learn that, when they speak without a sense of the codes that are operating – the tone, the timbre, etc.

“I suppose that’s what panics people about, let’s say, a primary school teacher wearing the face veil. As a matter of fact I think that’s largely misplaced anxiety, but I can see where it comes from.

“I’ve actually been in public discussion in Pakistan with women wearing full face veil, and you learn to read differently, it’s not that those codes don’t happen … but there’s a cultural barrier to overcome,” Williams said, according to the Telegraph.

Breitbart.com notes it’s not the first time Williams has spoken favorably of Islam. In August, he appeared at an annual Living Islam Festival in Lincolnshire, where he said Islam is helping to restore British values.

“Yes. I’m thinking of the way in which, for example, in Birmingham we have seen a local parish and a mosque combining together to provide family services and youth activities, both acting out of a very strong sense that this is what communities ought to do,” he said, according to the Times.

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Williams’ comments conflict with the views Browne, a former liberal Democrat in Parliament, who said last year that a ban on veils in school would protect students from having the garment imposed on them.

“My own view, I don’t think we should end up like different countries where we tell people how they should go about their business. I do think there is an issue with teachers in the classroom … that might be an area where a full veil might be inappropriate.

“There is genuine debate about whether girls should feel a compulsion to wear a veil when society deems children to be unable to express personal choices about other areas like buying alcohol, smoking or getting married,” Browne told the Telegraph in September 2013.

“We should be very cautious about imposing religious conformity on a society which has always valued freedom of expression,” he said.