Following up their ban of the niqab, or face veil in public because it is a secular democracy, France has denied again, women the right to wear modest clothing while swimming and recently removed two Muslim women from a pool at le Port Leucate for doing so. We wrote about this phenomenon last summer but it doesn’t look like people have taken our advice.
Two Muslim women were ordered to leave a swimming pool in a French holiday village on the southwest coast for wearing body-covering “burkinis”.
The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.
The incident occurred less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments, including the full Islamic veil, from public places including the street.
Under the new law, due to come into force early next year, women face a fine or community service for hiding their faces in public and those forcing women to wear the full veil risk prison.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has described the garment as “not welcome” in the staunchly secular French republic.
Now my question is if Muslims in France insist on asserting their rights in this secular democracy where certain things are not welcomed, what else will France do to them? The history of Europe in the 20th century for religious minorities doesn’t bode well for French Muslims. Wars and ethnic cleansing have been the by-product of European religious intolerance. My advice, if you’re willing to take is if you like swimming during the summer time, go to another country where you will be welcomed to vacation. My advice to America is now is the time for an excellent marketing campaign to attract Muslim vacationers…..opps. I forgot they’d probably be on a no-fly list, along with thousands of other law abiding Americans. My bad.
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