The imam of Florence has posted a picture of habit-wearing nuns splashing along the seashore on Facebook, calling for dialogue about burkini bans… but got his account blocked instead. The post by Izzedin Elzir got some 2,700 shares, and came in response to the French southern cities – like Cannes and Nice – prohibiting the wearing of burkinis on the beach.
The day after the imam published his post, he awoke to find his account blocked.
″It′s incomprehensible. I have to send them an ID document to reactivate it. They wanted to make sure it′s my account – it′s a very strange procedure,″ the indignant imam told La Repubblica.
On Friday, his account was back in: the imam said he hopes it wasn′t blocked because of the picture, as it urges dialogue, and ″we live in a society of law and freedom.″
He also noted that the burkini had only come into fashion among Muslim women over the past few years and he expressed regret that ″some politicians in France, instead of responding to the political and economic needs of their citizens, are focusing on how Muslims dress.″
On Tuesday, Italy′s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told Corriere Della Serra that Italy wouldn′t follow France′s suit and ban the burkini, but will step up regulations of imams and mosques.
Two days later, Italian authorities expelled the Tunisian imam Khairredine Romdhane Ben Chedli. The 35-year-old imam was lately absolved of terrorism-related charges, but still deemed unfit to remain in his post, the ANSA news agency said. (Russia Today)
Courtesy: Qantara.de
This incident followed fast on the heels of a knee-jerk and widely criticised reaction of the French authorities, theough the French police making woman remove clothing on Nice beach following the 'Burkini ban'.
Authorities in 15 towns have banned burkinis, citing public concern following recent terrorist attacks in the country
The Guardian reported that Photographs have emerged of armed French police confronting a woman on a beach and making her remove some of her clothing as part of a controversial ban on the burkini.
Authorities in several French towns have implemented bans on the burkini,which covers the body and head, citing concerns about religious clothing in the wake of recent terrorist killings in the country.
The images of police confronting the woman in Nice on Tuesday show at least four police officers standing over a woman who was resting on the shore at the town’s Promenade des Anglais, the scene of last month’s Bastille Day lorry attack.
French agency AFP saw a ticket given to the woman by police, which said she was not ‘wearing an outfit respecting good morals and secularism’. Photograph: Vantagenews.com
After they arrive, she appears to remove a blue long-sleeved tunic, although one of the officers appears to take notes or issue an on-the-spot fine.
The photographs emerged as a mother of two also told on Tuesday how she had been fined on the beach in nearby Cannes wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.Her ticket, seen by French news agency AFP, read that she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.
The woman was on the beach when the police arrived. Photograph: Vantagenews.com