Spokesman Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the United Nations wants French officials to lift the bans “immediately”, adding that they do not increase security.
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Cazeneuve said the aim of the discussions was to forge “an Islam anchored in the values of the French Republic”. He’s also said in his campaign, he hopes to ban headscarves in publicly owned companies and universities and to bring an end to pork-free alternative school meals, which would prevent practicing Muslim children from eating.
The mayor of a seaside town on the French Riviera is sticking by his town’s burkini ban, telling beachgoers, “if you don’t want to live the way we do, don’t come”.
The tensions in France regarding Muslims reached a new high after a restaurant owner in Paris refused to serve two veiled Muslim women and forced them out of the premises on Saturday.
Last week a French high court officially struck down a burkini ban in Villeneuve-Loubet, a Mediterranean beach resort, in effect invalidating others similar, many bans are still being enforced.
Earlier this summer, burkinis were banned from municipal beaches in 15 French towns, including Nice, which suffered a terrorist attack in July that left 84 people dead.
It is thought that around thirty towns have introduced bans on the Islamic swimwear, and a majority of the mayors have not lifted their ban after the Council of State’s judgement. Doing away with foreign financing is tricky because France by law cannot directly fund houses of worship, nor can it provide theology courses for imams.
Local authorities have said the wearing of burkinis threatens public order. The French constitution prohibits religious displays in public institutions.
“What is at stake is very important”, said Abdallah Zekri, who heads the Observatory Against Islamophobia.
The issue has become politically charged at the start of party primaries ahead of next year’s presidential election in France, with several leaders on the right and far-right calling for a law prohibiting the full-body swimming costume worn by some Muslim women.
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He also contended that humiliating Muslims “has facilitated the work of Daesh (ISIS) recruiters” of vulnerable Muslim youth. Some 20 mosques or prayer rooms considered imbued with radicalism have been closed in recent months.
