“Beachwear which ostentatiously displays religious affiliation, when France and places of worship are now the target of terrorist attacks, is liable to create risks of disrupting public order”, the regulations say, echoing fears of deepened religious tensions in the wake of the recent attacks.
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The court said the rule was legal under French law that prohibits people “invoking their religious beliefs to skirt common rules regulating relations between public authorities and private individuals”.
France has been the target of terrorist attacks, with three occurring over the past 18 months in major the metropolises and tourist destinations of Paris and Nice.
Women wearing the controversial outfit at a beach in the city will first be asked to change their clothes or leave the area.
The local branch of the Human Rights League warned that Cannes’ burkini ban could further alienate French Muslims.
France remains on high alert after a series of terrorist attacks, including the July truck attack, claimed by Islamic State, in which 85 people died in nearby Nice.
“If a woman goes swimming in a burkini, that could draw a crowd and disrupt public order”, Lisnard said, using the contraction of burqa and bikini that is commonly used to refer to fully-covering Muslim swim gear.
“This decision opens the door to a ban on all religious symbols in the public space”, he added. If they don’t they are said to risk a 38 euro ($A55) fine.
Earlier on Friday, it was announced that Cannes Mayor David Lisnard had ruled that burqinis should be banned on the city’s beaches.
This is not the first time that burkinis – along with other Muslim symbols – have gotten into hot water, so to speak.
An administrative court in Nice rejected on Saturday a plea by the CCIF, an umbrella organisation of groups against Islamophobia, to suspend the Cannes ordinance, saying that the town’s decision “respected” France’s constitutional provisions on secularism.
The ban on some beaches Burkini was deemed discriminatory by several associations defending human rights.
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Instead, it is an explicit linking of an item of clothing to terrorism and worse, it implies that if someone wears one, they can expect to be attacked for it. A priest was killed on July 26 in northwest France by two attackers who pledged allegiance to the self-styled “Islamic State” (IS) group.
