Burkini ban: France has dug itself into a hole

I can’t remember a time in recent history when France has appeared so isolated on an international level because of its own political choices. The criticism that has been levelled at France ever since the burkini scandal broke has brought to mind other instances of what some have described as “French-bashing”.

In 2003, when France opposed the Iraq war, anti-French sentiment in the US reached such a degree that French fries were renamed “freedom fries”, including Congress cafeterias. In 1995, after France carried out nuclear tests in the Pacific, there was an international boycott of French wines. The burkini ban imposed this month by 30 French municipalities carries so many absurdities that it is no surprise there has been a global backlash.

So much has been said about this mess that trying to make sense of it is to risk appearing complacent or in denial about France’s republican or democratic flaws. I’m not. France has dug itself into a hole it needs to climb out of quickly.

However, France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, last week overturned the burkini ban.

It took France a long time to find the right balance between respecting the Catholic traditions and implementing its 1905 law of separation of Church and State. In recent decades, what has been unfolding is a new quest for a democratic notion of inclusiveness within French society for Muslims. None of this has been made easier by the fact that France still has to come to terms with its colonial past, and that terrorism has made toxic passions swirl.

In the early years of the 20th century the city of Sens had outlawed religious processions and even the wearing of cassocks on its streets. Anti-clerical sentiment was so high that the very public appearance of religious clothing was itself deemed disruptive. But, in 1909, the judges struck down the ban.

French politics today has been upended by the public order question: Nicolas Sarkozy called last week for the banning of all religious clothing in public areas.

But the reason French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently shifted from talking about the “enslavement” of women to mentioning “public order” is that this offered a potentially more solid basis for his views. Now the highest court has clearly ruled that neither “public order” nor “emotions linked to terrorist acts” can be invoked to legitimise the ban.

Today’s ruling is a crucial turning point. It will hopefully restore common decency and the rule of law, and emphasise that the burkini does not in itself threaten public order. If that had been the case, then France’s state of emergency would have meant that, officially, citizens of different backgrounds or faiths could no longer safely sit on a beach together. The ruling isn’t the solution to all the issues that have to be dealt with — that’s some way off. But hopefully it will give a troubled nation some breathing space.