Burkinis on beaches stoke France’s long debate on secularism

Burkinis vs. bikinis.

Beneath the clash over how to dress, or undress, on the beaches of France simmers an issue that for decades has divided the nation, and grown more complex in this time of terrorism.

At least a dozen towns have banned body-covering burkini swimwear favored by some Muslim women, the latest skirmish in a long-running duel between some members of France’s large Muslim population and the secular establishment.

The burkini will finish in the closet at summer’s end, but the refueled debate over the French principle of “laicite,” or secularism, is unlikely to go away. And Muslims who feel they lost ground over an issue as shifting as the sand aren’t likely to forget.

The July 14 truck attack in Nice that killed 86 and the July 26 murder of a priest saying Mass in northwest France appear to have lowered the bar of fear, and tolerance.

A 22-year-old French Muslim woman living in Marseille was accosted while shopping in a grocery store with her mother by several people who had seen her on a TV news show explaining why she wears a burkini to the beach.

Some Muslims and non-Muslims alike maintain that the purpose of secularism is being thwarted and the principle transformed into an instrument to regulate the behavior of Muslims.

“Islamophobia is a new way to say I’m a patriot and that’s the way I’ll defend my country against you people who cannot integrate,” said Rim-Sarah Alouane, an expert on Muslim issues at the University of Toulouse. Politicians, she said, “are actually making sure the population does not integrate. They are making Muslims feel like that they cannot be French.”

With an estimated 5 million Muslims, France has the largest such population in Western Europe and is increasingly in search of ways to reign in traditions that clash with French culture and root out extremism.

France also has an unusually high number of atheists, which is another reason why secularism is a major issue.

More From FoxNews: