Cops on French Beach Make Muslim Woman Remove Tunic

The ban of the body-covering worn by Muslim women known as the burkini at several French beaches seems to grow more controversial by the day. The latest incident to make headlines comes from Cannes, where four police officers surrounded a Muslim woman and forced her to remove a veiled tunic on the beach, reports the Telegraph. Images show her removing the garment (she was clothed underneath it) and apparently getting a ticket. Also in Cannes, a woman with a tunic and headscarf was fined for not wearing "an outfit respecting good morals and secularism," reports AFP, which saw the ticket.

• Amid all this, sales of burkinis are on the rise, with non-Muslim women apparently buying them in solidarity. See the BBC and France24.
• The burkini ban goes before France's highest administrative court on Thursday, reports the Times of Israel.

• Burkini creator Aheda Zanetti of Australia has a column in the Guardian explaining how the ban is taking away Muslim women's freedom, precisely the opposite effect of why she created them in the first place. Read it here.
• "What outsiders fail to understand, the French argue, is that such body wear is not just a casual choice but part of an attempt by political Islamism to win recruits and test the resilience of the French republic." The Economist explains the French rationale here.
• An Algerian businessman promises to pay the fines of Muslim women who are cited by police. They can run up to $205. More at CNN.
• "This idiotic initiative is like fighting Communism by outlawing red flags or fighting fascism by outlawing brown shirts. Islamism and Muslim terrorism must be fought intensely but sensibly." A columnist in the Jerusalem Post.

(More burkini stories.)