France’s top administrative court suspended the ban in Villeneuve-Loubet on Friday on civil liberties grounds.
However, a number of mayors have said they will continue applying the bathing suit ban…
Responding to the ruling, Villeneuve-Loubet’s Mayor, Lionnel Luca, said: ‘We need to decide if we want a smiley, friendly version of sharia law on our beaches or if we want the rules of the [French] Republic to be implemented.’
(BBC, August 27, 2016)
Like the blacks who defied segregation laws in America 60 years ago, Muslims who defy burkini laws in France today are civil rights pioneers.
It does not bode well, however, that the top candidates for France’s forthcoming presidential election are all trying to out-Trump each other with their anti-Muslim rhetoric. After all, with leaders and would-be leaders in other European countries doing the same, this foreshadows the Niemöller tragedy of Europeans scapegoating Muslims the way they once scapegoated Jews.
Of course, President Franklin D. Roosevelt offered refuge to Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. Never mind that he engaged in far too much moral and geo-political dithering before doing so. But, given the moral and geo-political certainty with which President-elect Donald J. Trump spews his anti-Muslim rhetoric, he seems unlikely to do the same for Muslims fleeing similar persecution….
Meanwhile, here is why this ban is as sexist as it is Islamophobic:
Male officials are dictating what women can wear on French beaches — and people across a wide swath of French society say that’s a good thing…
To many Muslim women, that’s pure hypocrisy. They see the burkini bans themselves as sexist, not to mention racist and a reactionary backlash to terrorism fears.
(Associated Press, August 17, 2016)
Alas, plus ca change….