Islamaphobia in France?

Photo%3A+Wikimedia+Commons.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Zachary Filtz, Staff Writer

Fighting radical terrorists is not an easy task for governments to overtake. However, fighting discriminatory actions by a city against all Muslim women who enjoy swimming should never, ever work in relation to fighting potential terrorist attacks.

Fueling the agendas of a government seeking an “easy” way of preventing Muslim people to swim or even those who just enjoy being outside, a court in Nice, France suspended a ban that prevented any women wearing a burkini—a type of swimsuit covering most skin and leaving room for the face, hands, feet—last week.

The Nice court found it unconstitutional, but it was not clear if the city could go through with the controversial ban in the near future.

While I am thankful that this ban was found unconstitutional in that country, it worries me if such an act could ever be done on a city- or state-level here in the U.S.

According to CNN, the case was brought by the Collective Against Islamophobia.

The Collective Against Islamophobia is a group of human rights activists who have been helping a number of women challenge fines brought on by the Islamophobic actions of the city.

While the ban comes in the context of the Paris terrorist attacks by ISIS several months ago, banning people from exercising their freedom of religion is not only uncalled for, it will likely separate the country over the issue.

Other than creating divisions, I have written before that Islam is a very peaceful religion. The ISIS groups completely change historical verses in the Qur’an, and make small, violence-driven faction.

To me, it is the American equivalent of the Christian factions who showed up at abortion clinics and killed the doctors and nurses assisting with the abortion in the 1980s. I’m sorry if that offends you, but it should never be the right of any small faction claiming to be “religious” to kill people in cold blood. Period.

Every day, millions of peaceful Muslims practice their prayers several times per day without any violent nor aggressive agenda. That is a fact, and needs to be learned to be accepted by the easy-thinking Americans in our country *and* Nice, France, from where this horrible act of discrimination started.

Although this is an opinion article, I believe there is space in this argument to be objective. France maintains strict separation of church and state, according to a March 2015 NPR interview with a few Muslims living in France.

“In France today, it’s really hard to practice a religion, whatever it is,” said Anisa Enni, one of the Muslim broadcast interviewees. “It’s not just Islam.”

That quote is striking to me—while the French government claims to support religious diversity, this other side of a Muslim resident of France makes me want to protest such political “doctrine.”

I think that we should live in a free world where people can feel comfortable exercising their religious practices. That should go even if one’s religion requires them to dress very modestly.

Long live freedom.