FRANCE: Ban On Burkini Good For Security, But Bad For Tourism

French ban on the burkini is threatening to turn into a farce as police officers armed with pepper spray and batons marched onto a beach today and ordered a woman to strip off.

France prides itself on its secular society and the burka is banned. That has now spread to the burkini.

Four burly cops stood over the middle-aged woman, who had been quietly sunbathing on the Promenade des Anglais beach in Nice - yards from the scene of the Bastille Day lorry attack - and watched her take off a Muslim-style garment which protected her modesty.

It is thought the woman was given a warning about the dress code on the beach and was handed an on-the-spot fine.

'I'm in the country of human rights. I see no trace of the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. I am outraged that this could happen in France.'

David Lisnard, the right wing Republican Party mayor of Cannes who introduced the burkini ban in the first place, defended the police officers' behaviour.

Mr Lisnard said all 'beach dress that ostentatiously shows a religious affiliation' was unwelcome at a time when France was a target for Islamic State. He said any dress that might be linked with the terrorist group was offensive and risked provoking people, so risking public order.

On the same day, video also emerged of armed police waiting for Muslim women to come out of the sea at nearby Nice, and then warning them about their choice of headscarves.

The French government has warned that the burkini ban must not lead to the "stigmatisation" of Muslims, as outrage grew around the world over photos of armed police apparently making a woman remove some of her clothing on the beach in Nice, France.

Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, made the warning after he held emergency talks with French Muslim leaders, who demanded he meet them amid the furore over the photos of the woman removing her tunic, watched by four policemen.

"The implementation of secularism, and the option of adopting such decrees [banning burkinis] must not lead to stigmatisation or the creation of hostility between French people," Cazeneuve said after the meeting.

But he did not call for the bans, decreed by around 30 resorts mostly on the Mediterranean coast, to be overturned, and he noted that the Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls had last week given his support to local bans while stopping short of backing a nationwide prohibition.

The bans were implemented on the grounds that the full-body Islamic swimsuit "conspicuously" shows a person's religion, and their stated aim is to reduce tensions in the wake of the Islamist extremist massacre of 86 people last month in Nice.

But many critics say they are being used as an excuse to discriminate against Muslims in France, which has western Europe's largest Muslim community, at around five million people.

The photos of the woman in Nice were taken earlier this week as she appeared to be snoozing on the gravelly beach in front of Promenade des Anglais, the scene of last month's massacre in which a Tunisian lorry driver drove his truck into crowds of Bastille Day revellers.

She was wearing a headscarf, but not a burkini.

The officers stood around her and, apparently on their instructions, she removed a top that revealed either a sleeveless T-shirt or a swimsuit. She was also wearing leggings.

The officers then appear to write her a fine, as other beachgoers look on.

The images quickly went viral on social media, sparking mostly negative comments and making #WTFFrance a top trending hashtag on Twitter.

Feiza Ben Mohamed, secretary general of the Federation of Muslims of the South of France, said ‘two young women were made to leave the water by the police’ even though they were ‘not wearing the burkini’.

The video, which was posted on Twitter, shows children crying and shouting as the women are spoken to by the officers. Ms Ben Mohamed has accused the French authorities of ‘shamefully mixing up terrorists with the wider Muslim community.’ She said ‘this type of row is totally counterproductive and plays into Isis's hands.

‘It's exactly what Isis want - the mayor is doing their work for them. Isis seeks to make our young people believe that they are excluded, stigmatised, and they will use such examples in their recruitment drive.'

Then Ms Cusin said the officers went for Siam, was wearing 'a simple hijab [a headscarf that does not cover the face] around her hair'.

People then started shouting insults at Siam, telling her she was not welcome in France, and that she should 'go home'.

Ms Cusin said: 'It was pretty violent. I had the impression of a pack going after a woman sitting on the ground, crying with her daughter.'

Siam accepted an on-the-spot fine of around nine pounds, and her details were recorded on what will amount to a criminal record. She said: 'Today we are not allowed on the beach. Tomorrow, the street? Tomorrow, we'll be forbidden from practicing our religion at all?

The incidents come after a Muslim businessman pledged to pay fines imposed on women for wearing burkinis.

A French court has upheld the 'burkini ban' – ruling that the female swimwear was liable to cause offence and to provoke people to violence.

But wealthy Rachid Nekkaz, born in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges from Algerian immigrants, has said that he will pay any penalties that Muslim women incur for wearing the outfits.

He believes that the ban is 'unfair'.

He said 'I decided to pay for all the fines of women who wear the burkini in order to guarantee their freedom of wearing these clothes, and most of all, to neutralize the application on the ground of this oppressive and unfair law.'

The banning of the burkini in France, by the Administrative Tribunal in Nice, has been challenged by two human rights groups.

They argued that the ban on a garment that does not cover the face was petty, and designed to spread hatred against a small group of mainly Muslim mothers and grandmothers.

But judges said the ban in the resort of Villeneuve-Loubet was 'necessary, appropriate and proportionate'.

They said the burkini was 'liable to offend the religious convictions or non-convictions of other users of the beach.'

Burkini bans in France have boosted sales and interest in the full-bodied Islamic swimsuit, particularly from non-Muslim women, the Australian credited with creating the design said Tuesday.

The burkini has sparked huge controversy in France, with bans in 15 towns in the country's southeast amid high tensions following a string of deadly jihadist attacks.

But Australian-Lebanese Aheda Zanetti, who claims the trademark on the name burkini and burqini and created her first swimwear for Muslim women more than a decade ago, said the furore in France has attracted more publicity for her products.

'I can tell you that online on Sunday, we received 60 orders - all of them non-Muslim,' the 48-year-old Sydneysider said, adding that she usually received 10 to 12 orders on Sundays.

Zanetti did not have sales figures for the rest of the past week but said she had also received numerous messages of support - and only one disparaging email - since the French bans.

They include messages from cancer survivors and other swimmers who use her light-weight, quick-drying two-piece garments as protection from the sun.

There are other Islamic swimsuits but Zanetti has said her designs are the first to be streamlined into two-piece swimwear with a head covering.

'A lot of the correspondence... was that they are survivors of skin cancer and they've always been looking for something like this, saying, 'Thank god we've found someone like this producing such a swimsuit',' she said.

'The support I'm getting is somehow about empowering women... I feel like I've been a counsellor. It's a cry of need that they want to have this enjoyment.

'Women are standing together on this. It doesn't matter what race or religion.'

She said the one critical email questioned why Zanetti wanted to cover up women in France, noting 'we prefer our women to be naked'.

Australia is grappling with a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment after a series of attacks by radicalised youth but the burkini has not attracted strong criticism in a country where people regularly cover up at beaches to protect their skin under the harsh sun.

While there are divisions over the burkini in France, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday dismissed the idea of a ban in his country, saying Canadians should rise above the controversy as he called for the respect of individual rights and choices.

Judges also ruled the clothing could be viewed as a 'provocation exacerbating tensions' within France, which is currently under a State of Emergency following a series of attacks by Islamic State.

A lorry was used by a man claimed by Isis to kill 86 people in Nice on July 14th, in an attack which took place next to the city's main beach.

It is among around 15 where the burkini is now banned, and mayors across France are widening the measure every day.

But critics point out that 30 Muslims died in the Nice attack, including women wearing traditional clothes, including headscarves.

They point out how the French authorities are meant to support free expression, including the right to offend and provoke, and say that the burkini ban is utterly hypocritical.

Lawyers for the Human Rights League (LDH), and the Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) - who challenged the ban in Nice - said they would now appeal to the Council of State, France's highest administrative court.

Around ten women have so far been criminalised for wearing burkinis on French beaches this summer.

All were reprimanded by police officers in the Riviera resort of Cannes, and forced to leave the sand.

Four were fined the equivalent of £32, while all received 'warnings' that will now technically form part of their criminal records.

Another young Muslim mother was ordered off the beach at Cannes and fined for simply wearing a headscarf.

Three armed officers pointed a pepper spray canister in the 34-year-old's face and told her she was in breach of a new rule outlawing swimming costumes that cover the entire body.

She said the 'racist' officers simply wanted to humiliate her in front of her children and other family members, even though she was not even wearing a burkini.

It was the latest in a series of incidents in the south of France and comes after video emerged of armed police waiting for Muslim women to come out of the sea at nearby Nice, and then warning them about their choice of headscarves.

And just days ago, four women were fined 38 euros for wearing their burkinis on the beach in Cannes.

FRANCE: Delta Airlines Throws Out Muslim Couple From Flight

Nazia and Faisal Ali, were kicked off a Delta Airlines flight from Paris to Cincinnati on July 26

Nazia Ali had removed her sneakers, finished sending a text message to her parents and was putting on headphones and settling into her seat for the nine-hour flight from Paris to Cincinnati when a Delta Air Lines crew member approached her and her husband, Faisal.

They were excited to come home July 26 to see their three young sons following a 10th-anniversary trip to London and Paris, "the city of romance and love," he said.

What happened next would overshadow the good times they'd enjoyed: A flight crew member had complained to the pilot that she was uncomfortable with the Muslim couple in the second row of economy class. The woman was wearing a head scarf and using a phone, and the man was sweating, she allegedly told the pilot.

The pilot contacted the ground crew. He would not take off until couple was removed.

"We had been in our seats for 45 minutes," Nazia Ali, 34, said Thursday from the Cincinnati area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "The ground agent said, `Can you step out with me? We'd like to ask you a few questions.' So I said, `Do you want us to get our things?' And he said, `Yes, please grab all of your personal belongings. You're not going to be on this flight.' "

In the wake of the couple's removal from the flight, the Muslim advocacy group filed a religious profiling complaint against Delta Air Lines to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In a letter to be submitted to the department's Aviation Consumer Protection Division, the CAIR-Cincinnati alleges that two Muslim passengers were singled out for removal from a Delta flight from Paris after a flight attendant said she was not comfortable with them being on the plane.

The flight's destination was the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. It's not clear where the flight crew was based.

"We call on the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct a thorough examination into the prevailing practices of major American air carriers, including Delta Air Lines, and to develop policy guidelines on the objective factors that are to be considered when determining that a passenger may legally be removed from a flight," CAIR-Cincinnati attorney Sana Hassan said.

Faisal and Nazia Ali, Hassan and Karen Dabdoub, executive director of CAIR-Cincinnati, spoke at a 1 p.m. news conference.

Shortly thereafter, Delta Air Lines released a statement: "Delta condemns discrimination toward our customers in regards to age, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation or gender. As a global airline that brings hundreds of thousands of people together every day, Delta is deeply committed to treating all of our customers with respect. Delta continues its investigation into this matter and will issue a full refund of these customers’ airfare."

The flight attendant claimed that Faisal Ali tried to hide his cell phone and that she had heard the couple use the word "Allah." Allah is the Arabic word for God.

In CAIR’s letter to federal transportation officials, attorney Hassan wrote that Delta discriminated against the couple in violation of federal law. The organization wants the Department of Transportation to create guidelines for U.S.-based airlines on the removal of passengers for safety.

Dabdoub said that her organization nationally sees spikes in anti-Muslim behavior and examples of Islamophobia during election seasons — this year being no exception.

"There are some politicians who will try to climb that ladder of success on the backs of American-Muslims," she said. "Of course, we're not alone. These types of incidents are happening all across the country all too frequently. It is another symptom of the anti-Muslim behavior we see during the election season."

Two American Muslim women who work for the federal government were removed Wednesday night from an American Airlines flight at Miami International Airport. A flight attendant felt threatened by their presence, according to reports.

Faisal and Nazia Ali, both of whom emigrated to the United States with their respective families from Pakistan, became U.S. citizens 16 years ago. They are parents of three sons, ages 5, 4 and 2. He is 36 and works as director of operations for Healing Touch, a home health care company that he owns with his father and brother. He has a degree from the University of Cincinnati. She attended Wright State University. They worship at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati in West Chester Township.

Once they were led off the flight — they said they saw other Muslim women wearing head scarves seated toward the rear of the plane — they were questioned in a "rough manner" by a French security official.

"He said, `How long were you here?' We said, `Two days,' " Nazia Ali said. He asked where they stayed. They showed him the address of the hotel. He took cell phone photographs of their passports. The couple insisted they be allowed back on their flight but noticed that it was pushing back from the gate.

"He said to us, `You did nothing wrong. That's the way the world is right now,' " Faisal Ali said.

Delta paid for their room that night at a hotel near the airport.

They flew back to Cincinnati the next day. Nazia Ali said she had briefly considered not wearing her head scarf, but anger overtook her and she refused to alter her appearance, "because I did nothing wrong."

"It was humiliating. We were treated like criminals," she said. "I thought, `We are American citizens. You can't do this to us.' "

Asked she would like to see come of their experience, Nazia Ali said, "I want people to be educated. This was an international flight crew. They should be more educated than to make assumptions based on appearance."