Boris Johnson Calls Burka-Wearing Muslim Women ‘Bank Robbers’: 8 Other Infamous Quotes

Former British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson once again made the headlines for the wrong reasons on Monday when he compared burka-wearing Muslim women to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.”

In a piece he wrote in the Daily Telegraph to criticize Denmark’s newly imposed rule of banning burkas from public places, Johnson’s made these contradictory remarks.

“If you tell me that the burka is oppressive, then I am with you," he wrote, adding that schools and universities should be given the freedom to remove the veils of Muslim students if any of them "turns up … looking like a bank robber."

“I would go further and say that it is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes; and I thoroughly dislike any attempt by any – invariably male – government to encourage such demonstrations of ‘modesty’,” he added in the article.

Labor Party minister David Lammy called "pound-shop Donald Trump” accusing him of “fanning the flames of Islamophobia" for his political gain.

This was not the first time that Johnson accidentally or deliberately made controversial statements, often demeaning world leaders in the process. Here are 8 of them, courtesy Indy 100:

“She's got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.” – He said about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a 2007 interview.

“What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies,” – He said on people of color in 2010.

“The part-Kenyan President [has an] ancestral dislike of the British Empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.” – He said of former President Barack Obama in an interview with the Sun in 2006.

“[Female students went to university because they] have got to find men to marry.” – This was his response to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stating that 68 percent of women were going to be attending university back in 2013, at the World Islamic Economic Forum.

“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this [recreate the “golden age” of the Roman Empire] out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.” – He told the Sunday Telegraph in 2016.

“There was a young fellow from Ankara. Who was a terrific wankerer. Till he sowed his wild oats. With the help of a goat. But he didn’t even stop to thankera.” – Johnson’s poem on the Turkish president that was published in “the Spectator” and won him the competition held by the publication called “President Erdoğan offensive poetry competition.”

“My speaking style was criticized by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic Austrian cyborg." – He said in 2016.

“Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3” – He said about voting conservative in 2007.