Burqini-Banning France: Trump Racist For Restricting Muslim Entry

“It goes against everything Western society stands for, to discriminate against Muslims like that,” he said of Trump’s proposal.

Cannes, August 24 – A country where ten separate municipalities have enacted a prohibition against attire traditionally worn by Muslim women is calling the American Republican presidential candidate racist for proposing tighter controls over Muslims seeking to enter the US.

Police in various locations along the French Riviera could be seen yesterday and today enforcing local ordinances that outlaw the burqini and other sartorial manifestations of Islamic belief. At the same time, numerous French governmental figures have voiced opposition to GOP nominee Donald Trump’s statements that his administration would bar many Muslims from immigrating to, or even visiting, his country.

French officials attacked Trump’s pronouncements regarding his ideas to prevent terrorist attacks on US soil. “There are ways to act against threats without alienating an entire class of people,” charged Mayor Philippe Pradal of Nice, whose city began enforcing a burqini ban this week. “If American really wants to affirm that it is a tolerant, open society, it cannot elect a man who is so outspoken about his intention to close off that society to so many, and to make a billion people feel unwelcome on its shores.”

Cannes Mayor David Lisnard echoed Pradal’s criticism. “It goes against everything Western society stands for, to discriminate against Muslims like that,” he said of Trump’s proposal. “It’s also just irresponsible from an optics standpoint. It really doesn’t look good, even if the value behind it is concern for public safety and order,” he added, referring to the very considerations French municipalities have cited in multiple successful defenses of Islamic-attire bans in European courts.

“I think it’s offensive,” stated Prime Minister Emmanuel Valls. “Saying you would ban entry for Muslims into the United States is right up there with a woman going to Saudi Arabia and making a point of wearing a revealing swimsuit. It’s provocative and pointlessly dangerous. Who knows what kind of violence that might spark?” Valls recommended that Muslim women in France who insist on wearing the hijab or modest swimwear may do so in the privacy of their homes, where they would provoke no reaction.

“The man is obviously a misogynist as well as a racist,” declared Pradal. “Here in France we know how to treat women and minorities. Modest swimwear threatens France’s open atmosphere, where at the beaches women are all but forced to invite ogling, the way it should be. It’s sexist to demand that women do anything but look sexy.”

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