French press review 18 August 2016

As debate over the Muslim full-bodied swimming costume, the burkini, heats up, all the French dailies turn their attention to the issue, which appears to be overlapping with that of Islamist violence.

Le Figaro reports that two locals from the Corsican village of Sisco have been freed from custody following the brawl on Saturday which saw the burkini banned by a local mayor on the island.

But three brothers of north African origin, who were involved in the incidents, are still in custody accused of "armed violence".

The paper says the precise reasons behind the violent clashes which saw five wounded are still murky.

"A few days after the brawl between villagers and a north African family, investigators are trying to find out what could have caused such a rampage," it reports.

Two residents of Sisco, on the island's north-east coast, were also placed in custody yesterday for "assault as part of a group" but were released in the evening.

All five will appear before the criminal court in Bastia this afternoon.

French PM backs burkini ban

Le Monde's front page story reads "Valls calls on Muslims to oppose radical Islam".

The French prime minister has called on the Muslim community to "feel involved and take responsibility" for all the current strife France is facing over Islamist extremists, which have seen a spate of terror attacks in the past two years.

Meanwhile Valls has come out in support of the burkini ban, saying that the full bodied swimsuit "is not compatible with the values of France and the Republic".

In an interview yesterday with the regional daily La Provence, Valls took up a firm position on the increasingly controversial ban on the body and head-covering Muslim beach dress.

Valls gave his "support and understanding" to those mayors who have outlawed the garment, as long as they were motivated by the desire to live together harmoniously and not political calculations, while ruling out new national laws on the burkini.

His comments come after bans in three Mediterranean towns - Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco – with the mayors of Le Touquet and Oye-Plage on the English Channel and Leucate, in the south-west, declaring their intention to do the same.

Valls said the mayor's action was necessary, and a natural reaction, as they "look for solutions to avoid disturbances to public order"

Muslims want to feel free in their beach dress

Meantime, Libération puts a different slant on the ban with its reporter heading to the beaches in Marseilles to talk to Muslim women wearing the costume at local beaches.

"Bathing in this robe is not practical, it is a liberation," one woman tells the paper lying on the sand in a black and white dress covering her to the feet, her face surrounded with a blue veil.

On her last day of holidays in the region, Hanane says she carefully picked out her turquoise and black burkini in Tunisia about five years ago and says it allows her to swim "in all modesty".

That, she adds playfully, doesn't stop her being flirtatious on the beach.

The 41-year-old teacher from Paris finds the controversy over the burkini odd.

"Why all this focus on Muslims?" she asks. "I am not of the same religion as terrorists. I cried after the attacks. I'm moderate. I just want to live my religion freely"

And, one might add, go to the beach.

Warnings of stigmatisation and exclusion

Also in Libération, French sociologist Jean Baubérot, a proponent of religious secularism, says "One can be shocked without prohibiting."

He argues the ban may well accentuate Muslims' sense of exclusion in French society and increase the racial divide and stigmatisation.

 "In this grave and uncertain situation there is a really serious debate between two options," he points out. "Either you give as many people as possible a feeling that they belong to the community and isolate the enemies of the Republic; or you say 'There is a slip-up' and crack down at the slightest opportunity on anything which seems shocking. But then Daesh [the islamic Sate armed group] are going to play the victim and say 'See, you are stigmatised, you are not included in the French community'.

"One may be shocked by the veil, the burkini, and it can and should be debated, but without banning it," he concludes. "That is the principle of democracy, to tolerate difference and accept otherness."

To read our coverage of France's burka ban click here

To read our coverage of last year's Paris attacks click here