JAFFA, Israel – Social media users across the Arab world are still expressing outrage over the conduct of French police officers who recently attempted to enforce a new law forbidding burkinis by forcing a Muslim woman to remove her garments on a beach in Nice on the French Riviera.
Police officers patrolling the beach reportedly saw the woman and ordered her to remove the burkini, which is an Islamic-style swimsuit that covers the whole body except the face, the hands, and the feet. According to one eyewitness, fellow beach-goers applauded the police officers and others yelled at the Muslim woman, “Go home.”
Just a few days earlier, a French court in Nice rejected an appeal filed by a human rights organization against the decision of several municipalities in the Riviera in southern France to ban the burkini on their beaches.
The issue has continued to stir the anger of social media users in the Arab world.
Abdelrahmah Dam wrote on Twitter, “The burkini is shaking the foundations of secularism in France. A modest piece of cloth confuses the politicians and eliminates the hope for freedom. The church has become much more tolerant than the secularism that waves the flag of freedom.”
البوركيني يهز كيان العلمانية بفرنسا
قطعة قماش محتشمة تربك الساسة وتبدد الامال بالحرية
صارت الكنيسة أكثر سماحة من العلمانية رافعة شعار الحرية— د.عبد الرحمن دمشقية (@DrDimashqiah) 25 August 2016
Another Twitter user wrote: “This is the false and deceitful democracy and freedom of Europe. Only the stupid and ignorant Arabs are allowing this to deceive them.”
هذه ديمقراطية وحرية اوروبا الكاذبة والخادعة التي لم يخدع بها الا العرب الجهلة الاغبياء
— الحمدلله ♡ (@Walenezi11) August 24, 2016
Fati, also on Twitter, said, “France is not fair. Why aren’t nuns forbidden to swim, why aren’t they asked to take off their clothes? They don’t do this to them because they aren’t Muslims.”
فرنسا ليست منصفة لﻷسف لماذا لم يمنعوا أيضا الراهبات من السباحة ونزع حجابهن أم ﻷنهن ليست مسلمات فهذا يعني ان فرنسا تعتبر اﻻسﻻم دين
— fati rif (@Fati962531691) August 24, 2016
“Where are the friends of Auntie France who criticize clerics regarding the hijab, individual freedoms, and the rights of women?” asked Amir, another Twitter user.
وينهم اصحاب خالتي فرنسا الذين يبلبلون على العلماء والحجاب والحرية وحقوق المرأة
شرطة #فرنسا تجبر امرأة على خلع… https://t.co/Fcsxn5pGUa
— امير ثامر 🇾 (@ymn0967) August 25, 2016
Many posts included photos of nuns bathing at the beach in religious garb. As Twitter user Sheriff put it, “The French police force a Muslim to take off her burkini. I’d like to see them do that to their nuns. Is this how they view human rights over there?”
شرطة فرنسا تجبر سيدةمسلمة على خلع "البوركيني".
أتحداهم فعل هذامع راهباتهم
أهذه حقوق الانسان عندهم!
نفاق@EHSANFAKEEH pic.twitter.com/ONEBf9T5D5— sheriff (@sheriff234) August 24, 2016
Another user also posted photos of nuns at the beach in religious dress, saying, “What they’re allowed, we’re forbidden.”
@privileges2 حلال عليهم… حرام علينا
— Someoneelse (@Someoneelse77) August 21, 2016
But there were others who took out their feelings on Muslim women. Nour wrote: “There’s nothing in Sharia about Islamic bathing suits. Why go to a beach full of naked people? We’re familiar with French hate toward Islam.”
لا يوجد في الشرع مايوه اسلامي ولماذا الذهاب اصلا لشاطئ مليء بالعراة نعرف حقد فرنسا على الاسلام لكن على نفسها جنت براقش
— نور اليقين Nour Alyakeen (@NourAlyakeen86) August 24, 2016
Muhammed Tamimi also chose to criticize the Muslim woman in Nice. “If she respected herself, what is she, a pure Muslim woman, doing at these beaches? Is a Muslim woman allowed to look at men in swimwear? What kind of Islam is this?”
https://twitter.com/w9avvT6ClQydleO/status/768514461535768577
Yet another Twitter user wrote: “She deserves it. This isn’t modesty, it is nakedness with the word burkini.”
تستاهل هذا ماهو حشمه هذا تعري باسم البوركيني
— مراقب (@mfqrt) August 24, 2016
Aziz Alqenaei however, criticized the hypocrisy of those condemning the woman for immodesty: “The weird part is that a Muslim will defend individual freedom while in his own society he lives as a slave.”
الغريب أن يدافع المسلم عن الحريات بينما في مجتمعه يعيش العبودية
البوركيني والكاوبوي الإسلامي
مقال اليوم
— Aziz Alqenaei (@Azizalqenaei) August 25, 2016
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