Islamophobia rears after false reports
An attack on a woman sunbathing in a bikini has inflamed race relations in France amid claims that the country is succumbing to Islamophobic hysteria reminiscent of prewar antisemitism.
The row comes after commentators and politicians claimed – wrongly, as it transpired – that the 21-year-old victim had been beaten up by a Muslim girl gang keen to enforce Islamic law.
Their claims gained momentum when it emerged that three members of the group have Muslim-sounding names, while the victim is French.
Hundreds of people posted pictures of themselves online in swimwear to defend the French right to undress. Dozens more, also in bikinis or swimming trunks, took part in a demonstration in the public park in Reims where the incident occurred.
Right and left united in their denunciation of the attack.
Florian Philippot, the deputy chairman of the far-right National Front, said the woman had been ‘‘lynched because she was trying to live in a French way’’.
SOS Racisme, the left-wing antiracist group, said she was a victim of religious oppression.
The country went from outrage to soul-searching when police said the fight had resulted from a banal dispute that had nothing to do with religion.
Officers said Angelique Sloss had been sunbathing in Leo-Lagrange park last week when five women walked past her, and one said: ‘‘Get dressed, it’s not summer.’’ Police say that Sloss retorted: ‘‘With a body like yours, I understand why you don’t go out in a swimsuit.’’
The two came to blows. Sloss claimed she was also attacked by the four members of the group. They say they tried to separate the protagonists.
Helene Morton, the deputy state prosecutor in Reims, said there was ‘‘absolutely no religious motive’’.
She added that the five alleged attackers dressed in French clothes and had no links to Islamic fundamentalists.
One of the women, named as Zohra Karim, posted a video on Facebook to say: ‘‘I am the first person to go out sunbathing in my swimsuit in Leo-Lagrange park. Personally, I am not a terrorist, I’m nothing of the kind, and I’m not an Islamic policewoman.’’
L’Union de Reims, the local newspaper, which at first said Sloss had been beaten up by ‘‘religious police’’ for wearing a bikini, has apologised for a ‘‘clumsy and hasty report’’.
Le Monde said the incident had given rise to an outpouring of ‘‘xenophobia, sexism, violence and vulgarity’’.