Salman Rushdie on Burkinis, ISIS and His Latest Novel

Burkinis: What Does the Row Tell Us about France? - BBC Newsnight

Evan Davis discusses France's controversial 'burkini ban' with Shelina Janmohamed, author of Love in a Headscarf, and Generation M, and Douglas Murray, associate editor of the Spectator.

Sarkozy Interview "Burkini Is Provocation"

CNN Being Politically Correct Again: Cannes Bans Burkinis on Beaches

The mayor of Cannes has banned burkinis, swimwear that covers the entire body, amid terror concerns. CNN's Michael Holmes reports.

Nigella Lawson Wears a Burkini on Bondi Beach
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: For admirers of Nigella Lawson's Rubenesque curves, the prospect of the domestic goddess hitting the beach was one to savour.

From corseted Vivienne Westwood gowns to figure-hugging cashmere twinsets, the television chef never fails to make the most of her voluptuous figure.

So her choice of swimwear for a dip off Sydney's Bondi Beach came as something of a surprise. Rather than a revealing swimming costume, Miss Lawson was covered head to toe in a burkini, the modesty-saving outfit designed for Muslim women.

The 51-year-old cut a striking figure as she splashed in the surf with her friend, comedian Maria McErlane. While Miss McErlane wore a skimpy bikini, Miss Lawson was protected from the elements in a black two-piece and peaked cap, leaving only her hands, feet and face showing.

Rather than a sudden conversion to Islam, her choice of outfit was motivated by a desire to shield her creamy complexion from the Australian sun. "Nigella was protecting herself from sunburn, nothing more than that," said her spokesman. » | Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor | Tuesday, April 19, 2011

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Kate Middleton's wedding dress? That's one for the women, says BBC's Huw Edwards: As the presenter chosen to lead the BBC's coverage of the Royal Wedding, Huw Edwards will guide viewers through every aspect of the day - except one. » | Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor | Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Burkini in Wiener Bädern eine Rarität
WIENER ZEITUNG: Der Ganzkörperbadeanzug ist in Wien seit 2009 erlaubt.

Wien. Seit 2009 ist er in Wiens Bädern offiziell erlaubt, benützt wird er aber kaum: der Burkini, ein eigens für religiöse Musliminnen angefertigter Badeanzug, der den ganzen Körper mit Ausnahme von Händen, Füßen und Gesicht bedeckt. Die Bezeichnung ist eine Wortschöpfung, bestehend aus Burka und Bikini. Erfunden wurde er 2006 von der in Australien lebenden libanesischen Designerin Aheda Zanetti.

In Ägypten und der Türkei hatte der Burkini schnell Erfolg. Doch in Wien trifft man ihn auch jetzt, da viele angesichts der sommerlichen Hitze ins Feuchte springen, kaum. "In Freibädern sieht man ihn gar nicht, in Hallenbädern vereinzelt", berichtet Martin Kotinsky, Sprecher der MA44 (Bäder). Ein Grund könnte sein, dass der Burkini schwer erhältlich ist. In Wien ist er nur über Internet zu kaufen und kostet mehr als 100 Euro. >>> | Mittwoch, 21. Juli 2010

Anti-Dhimmitude! Two Muslim Women Thrown Out of Pool for Wearing 'Burkinis'
THE TELEGRAPH: Two Muslim women were ordered to leave a swimming pool in a French holiday village on the southwest coast for wearing body-covering "burkinis".

Burkini: It has been less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments in public places. Photo: The Telegraph
The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.

The incident occurred less than two weeks after French MPs voted to ban body and face-covering garments, including the full Islamic veil, from public places including the street.

Under the new law, due to come into force early next year, women face a fine or community service for hiding their faces in public and those forcing women to wear the full veil risk prison.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has described the garment as "not welcome"* in the staunchly secular French republic.

In this case, the women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp were told to leave as they had breached the camp's rules allowing only conventional bikinis or one-piece swimsuits "for hygiene reasons". >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Thursday, July 22, 2010

*It should be declared “not welcome” here, too. But would a British politician have the gonads to make such a declaration? – © Mark

Burqini Banned in Italian Town
If this Labour government could find its balls, it, too, would ban this symbol of subservience and darkness. Women haven’t fought for their rights over all these years only to be taken back into the Dark Ages by a people who are totally unenlightened and benighted. Emmeline Pankhurst: Eat your heart out! – ©Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: Muslim women have been banned from wearing the body-concealing swimming costume known as a burqini in the northern Italian town of Varallo Sesia, according to a report.

Women wearing the garment, made up of a veil, a tunic and loose leggings, face a fine of €500 (£430) if they are spotted at swimming pools or rivers, the ANSA news agency reported.

The anti-immigration mayor of the northern Piedmont town said: "The sight of a 'masked woman' could disturb small children, not to mention problems of hygiene.

"We don't have to be tolerant all the time," Gianluca Buonanno said.

Justifying the move, Mr Buonanno added: "Imagine a western woman bathing in a bikini in a Muslim country. The consequences could be decapitation, prison or deportation. We are merely prohibiting the use of the burqini." >>> | Wednesday, August 19, 2009

How the West Was Lost: The Burkini
THE TELEGRAPH: The Burkini. You’d think it was a joke invention: a bit like the grotesque “Mankini” so hilariously sported by Sacha Baron Cohen on all those posters for Borat. What, after all, could be more absurd than melding the not-notably-sexy Muslim dress - the Burka - with the kind of achingly seductive kit worn by Brigitte Bardot in And God Created Woman?

But no, the Burkini is for real. It was designed by an [sic] Lebanese Australian Aheda Zanetti to enable women in thrall to extreme Saudi-style dress codes to go swimming on beaches and in public baths without incurring a beating or instant divorce from their characteristically tolerant and cosmopolitan menfolk.

“Practical and stylish,” is how they’re described on a BBC website. Hmm, up to a point. Practical if your primary goal is to protect yourself from box jellyfish stings; stylish, maybe, if your points of comparison are a gorilla outfit, or a Barbara Cartland pink dress, or a tent. But I do think we should be wary of viewing the burkini in terms of a fashion story or an amusing novelty, when it also represents something more sinister. I’m sure the designer didn’t intend this, but the Burkini has become yet another weapon in the Islamist assault on Western cultural values.

When most of us think of militant Islam, we tend to think in terms of suicide bombs on London buses, planes flying into Twin Towers and 19-year olds getting their limbs blown off by Taliban IEDs. But as any extremist Imam could tell you, there are at least two ways in which a good Muslim can further the ongoing struggle to convert the whole world from the House of War (that’s the non-Muslim world) to the House of Islam (ie global submission to the will of Allah): one (see above) is by poison or the sword; the other is by honey.

So the Burkini is part of the honey campaign: all those parts of the Islamist war on the West that have nothing to do with killing people. This campaign includes everything from schoolgirls fighting legal battles (with the help of one Cherie Blair) to fight for their inalienable right to go to school dressed like a sack, to Muslim supermarket workers trying to dictate the terms of their employment (refusing to sell alcohol), to the ongoing campaign (apparently endorsed by our own Archbishop of Canterbury) for certain civil decisions in the Muslim “community” to be made under Sharia law. The goal is to establish the view that Islam is a religion [that] should be allowed to trump everything, including the cultural norms of any non-Muslim society in which its adherents find themselves living.

Why should we care if women want to dress up in burkinis? Well we shouldn’t. It’s a free country. Where we should worry very much is when, in the name of weasel concepts like “tolerance”, “respect” and Multiculturalism, the wider society is bullied into adopting similar “Muslim” (ie Saudi-style, Wahhabist) dress codes too. >>> James Delingpole | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Burkinis Give Me a Sinking Feeling
THE TELEGRAPH: The freedom to wear a small, practical swimsuit without feeling self-conscious is hard-won, and fragile, says Jemima Lewis.

The Burkini is such a ludicrous garment that it is hard to take seriously. Designed to enable veiled Muslims to go swimming without compromising their modesty, it covers every inch of flesh except the feet, hands and face. It makes the wearer look like a cross between a Teletubby and an enormous condom.

In France it is banned from public pools, on the grounds that its copious material carries more germs than conventional swimsuits. In England, incredible though it may seem, it is becoming required wearing at some pools, during "Muslim-only" sessions.

It was not so very long ago that women were unable to take a dip in public without first donning an enormous mohair crinoline and being dragged out to sea in a bathing machine. The freedom to wear a small, practical swimsuit without feeling self-conscious is hard-won, and fragile. All it takes is for one burkini to appear at the poolside, and everyone else feels underdressed.

Wearing a burkini is not merely a personal choice, but a judgment on others. It says: I am modest, you are not. It is, in its own way, no less oppressive than a mohair crinoline. [Source: The Telegraph Jemima Lewis | Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Stupid, Weak, Cowardly, Fawning Brits! New Dark Age Alert! Swimmers Are Told to Wear Burkinis
THE TELEGRAPH: British swimming pools are imposing Muslim dress codes in a move described as divisive by Labour MPs.

UK councils running restricted swimming session for Muslims. Photo: The Telegraph
Under the rules, swimmers – including non-Muslims – are barred from entering the pool in normal swimming attire.

Instead they are told that they must comply with the "modest" code of dress required by Islamic custom, with women covered from the neck to the ankles and men, who swim separately, covered from the navel to the knees.

The phenomenon runs counter to developments in France, where last week a woman was evicted from a public pool for wearing a burkini – the headscarf, tunic and trouser outfit which allows Muslim women to preserve their modesty in the water.

The 35-year-old, named only as Carole, is threatening legal action after she was told by pool officials in Emerainville, east of Paris, that she could not wear the outfit on hygiene grounds.

But across the UK municipal pools are holding swimming sessions specifically aimed at Muslims, in some case imposing strict dress codes.

Croydon council in south London runs separate one-and-a half-hour swimming sessions for Muslim men and women every Saturday and Sunday at Thornton Heath Leisure Centre.

Swimmers were told last week on the centre's website that "during special Muslim sessions male costumes must cover the body from the navel to the knee and females must be covered from the neck to the ankles and wrists". >>> Patrick Sawer | Saturday, August 15, 2009

Vive la belle France! Anti-dhimmitude: French Ban Muslim Woman from Pool for Wearing 'Burkini' Swimsuit
THE TELEGRAPH: A French woman who converted to Islam has been banned from wearing a "burkini" in a swimming pool outside Paris.

Muslim convert Carole understands she was banned on account of a 'political problem'. Photo: The Telegraph
The woman, named only as Carole, 35, was told that the garment, a swimsuit that covers most of the body, was "inappropriate" clothing for a public baths.

Pool staff said her three-piece Islamic swimsuit she bought in Dubai - consisting of a headscarf, tunic and trousers - was against pool regulations and unhygienic.

They had "reminded her of the rules that apply in all [public] swimming pools which forbid swimming while clothed," said Daniel Guillaume, a manager at the pool in the suburb of Emerainville.

The ban was imposed as President Nicolas Sarkozy's government is considering an outright ban on all Islamic dress, such as the head-to-toe burka or niqab, that it considers a "sign of subservience" and "not welcome" in France.

"Burkini" is derived from the words bikini and burka. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Cover Yourselves Up, You Whores!

Photo of woman in burkini care of the the Daily Mail

THE DAILY MAIL: Schools have been told they should allow Muslim girls taking swimming lessons to cover themselves from head to toe in special outfits dubbed burkinis.

An increasing number of pupils are insisting that conventional swimming costumes are "immodest" and, citing religious grounds, have been refusing to wear them.

Now councillors in Ealing, West London, are encouraging local pools to stock the £29 Lycra "burkinis" and instructing local schools to let girls wear them.

Teachers have even been given details of an online swimwear company that will deliver the two-piece burka-like outfits, which cover every bit of skin from the ankle to the neck and come with a head covering to conceal the hair. Now schools are told to let Muslim girls wear head-to-toe 'burkinis' for swimming lessons (more) By Daniel Boffey

Mark Alexander