The burkini ban and religious freedom

Dear Editor, David Quinn (Moves to ban the burkini are excessive and counterproductive, IC 1/9/16) says, in reference to France that “the weight of Catholic opinion is opposed to the ban on grounds of religious freedom”. It should also be said that very many Catholics (and others also) in France and elsewhere are opposed to the ban on the grounds that any effort in favour of modesty in the matter of swimwear on the beaches of the French Riviera  can only be welcomed. 

David Quinn also argues correctly “that the sight of French police seemingly forcing a middle-aged Muslim lady on a beach to remove her garments” is counterproductive. One might reasonably surmise that the four armed policemen – in full public view – were scarcely forcing the lady to put on more garments, in Cannes of all places! The French courts seem now to be acknowledging that such a lady has as much right as her native French fellow citizens, however they may be clad, to relax on the beach, and certainly without being bullied by the police. 

Whether, however, she is doing her own standards justice by going on to such a beach is quite a different question.

Yours etc.,

Donncha Ó hAodha,

Kingston,

Co. Galway