Salut!

Burkinis, mayoral folly and still France damages her image as the cradle of liberty

See this report at the BBC site

Stop Press: it is almost beyond belief but a) various mayors are behaving as if the Conseil d'Etat makes rulings for fun and b) this now comes from Manuel Valls, the prime minister and a figure I have admired for his attempts to counter French resistance to change. "Her [Marianne, symbol of the republic] breast's exposed because she's feeding the people; she isn't wearing a veil because she's free."

For the French, we had our vaches folles. For anyone who rather admires the values embraced by the high-minded national motto of liberté, égalité, fraternité, France has had its maires fous. No, not mad horses in place of mad cows (BSE) but utterly foolish, however well-meaning mayors. The gruesome French burkini saga may or may or not have been brought to an end by the Conseil d'Etat's ruling on Friday suspending the ban in one French resort. But this has not been France at its best, as I argue at The National ...

Choudary, Kadiza and karma: for whom the bell tolls

Choudary on the left in this photo from Scotland Yard. Mohammad Mizanur Ra (right), one of his followers, was also conficted of encouraging support for ISIL (right

As France continues to make a rather dangerous fool of itself over burkinis on the beach, on which I shall have more to say, here's another look at the rotten world we've become ...

Three significant developments, two of them loosely related, in the struggle to overcome terrorism have captured attention in Britain and France. First came news that Kadiza Sultana, 17, one of three London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria in 2015 as "jihadi brides", had been killed in a Russian air raid on Raqqa.

Then we learned that, after a secret trial, the UK judiciary had caught up with the dangerous rabble-rousing of Anjem Choudary, co-founder of the banned Al Muhajiroun group.

Burkini memo to French mayors: would you also ban my aunts for being nuns?

Maybe this is taking it a step too far. But then, several mayors and a prime minister I have hitherto respected, Manuel Valls, seem determined to make France a laughing stock. Let us be blunt: banning the burkini, burqini or body-covering swimsuit from French beaches, because it makes the wearer look like a terrorist or is somehow unhygienic, is on any analysis stupid. That is without even considering the Corsican louts who attack Muslims on the beach because of how they are dressed. They are just that, louts.

We must all be vigilant in troubled times, but is it strictly necessary, in the war on terror from within, to invent provocation? And here's a thing: I wonder how two of my late aunts, both nuns, might have fared in modern-day, intolerant France. One was a Protestant, the other a Catholic - would the latter have been treated in the street as if her appearance implied support for the Inquisition? ...

Never let terrorism rob France of its joie de vivre

At Facebook, I asked French friends or friends living in France whether terrorism had made them change their habits, damaged their joie de vivre or persuaded them to stop attending certain events, locations etc. Most responded in positive style, wary but adamant that life must go on. In this piece, there is as much reflecting that spirit as the sort of collective fear that prompted the cancellation of the Lille Braderie ...

Jean-Michel reflects on the rare sight of empty tables at his seafront café on the French Riviera in high season and allows himself a philosophical sigh.

"We are not a business of need, but one of pleasure," he says. "If they’re just thirsty, they can buy a drink from a shop. Our customers come to relax, look out to the sea or gaze at other tourists going by. And too many people don’t feel that happiness just now."

A failure in Northern Ireland, but could internment help against Daesh/ISIL?

Credit: Ina Society

A call for anti-terrorism measures that risk alienating Muslims generally is worthless if advanced by, say, the French far right, which has as much interest in harmonious community relations Daesh/ISIL. But friends of Islam have a special entitlement, and therefore a duty, to speak out in these extraordinary times. A 600-word piece* is far too short to cover all the ground, but can be a starting point for debate ...