Lisnard’s directive states that, “Access to beaches and for swimming is banned to any person wearing improper clothes that are not respectful of good morals and secularism”.
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“A beach outfit showing in an ostentatious manner a religious affiliation, given that France and religious places are now the target of terrorist acts, has the nature of creating risks of troubles of public order (mobs, conflicts, etc.) that are necessary to be prevented”, said the new law.
The two towns in south-eastern France who chose to ban the wearing of Burkini on their beaches, Saturday received the support of a judge who refused to suspend the ban on this outfit decreed by the mayor Cannes.
France has been the target of several terror attacks in the past few years; a truck attack in Nice in July was the most recent incident.
It comes almost a month after a terror attack in nearby Nice, where a man drove a heavy truck through a Bastille Day crowd on the city’s main beach promenade, killing 84.
The Collective Against Islamophobia in France contends the Cannes burkini ban is a violation of laws protecting personal rights.
A priest was killed on July 26 in his church in northwestern France by two attackers who had proclaimed their allegiance to Islamic State.
The law came one day after an event for women wearing burkinis was cancelled in Marseille because of death threats against the organisers. In 2010, the French parliament passed a law banning burqas and forbidding people from concealing their faces in public.
In France Islamic dress is a major issue.
The full veil in public places is banned in the country but nothing prohibits the wearing of symbols or religious clothing, argued these organizations. Lavisse believes that the measure was just a way of making publicity to the city since it has been reported that women on Cannes’ beaches continued to wear burkinis, and authorities have not approached them.
“The wearing of distinctive clothing, other than that usually worn for swimming, can indeed only be interpreted in this context as a straightforward symbol of religiosity”, the judge ruled.
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Cannes Mayor David Lisnard’s ban on the “burkini” comes at a time of heightened security in France. The attack killed 85 people and was claimed by IS. A statement on its website said the mayor’s logic was “shocking”, and that equating all Muslim symbols to terrorism would create tensions between Catholics and Muslims.
