Attempts To Ban The Burkini In France Reveal A Very Different Concept of 'Religious Freedom' From the United States's

On Friday, France's highest administrative court struck down a law in the small seaside community of Villeneuve-Loubet banning the "burkini," a swimsuit worn by Muslim women that covers the entire body except for the face, feet, and hands.

While human rights activists cheered the court's move, some French mayors say they will refuse to comply. Former president Nicholas Sarkozy even went so far to say that, if elected next April, he would change France's constitution to ban the full-body swimsuit.

"For an American sensibility, we look at this and scratch our heads and think: what are the French thinking?" said Charles Sennott, executive director of The GroundTruth Project.

"If someone Amish wanted to go to a beach in the Hamptons and wanted to wear a traditional dress, no one would stop them and no one would even think of doing it, in the way we define our democracy," he continued.

The difference, Sennott explained, is the way that religious freedom is defined differently by the constitutions of France and the United States.

The United States puts an emphasis on freedom of religion, allowing people to practice the faith of their choice. But in France, the emphasis is on a freedom from religion, and a strict absence of religion from all aspects of secular life. There's even a term for that strict separation: laïcité.

"In France, this idea—this really powerful concept they have woven into their history—is of laïcité, which is secularism, a more harsh line between religion and state," Sennott said.

"The U.S. democracy and the way we wrote the Constitution sought to separate god and the state, and religion in the state, but it did it in a way to keep religion in the argument, in the context," he continued.

Those differing interpretations of religious freedom can also play out in the way each country addresses the challenges posed by religious extremism and terrorism, Sennott said—especially when combined with the factors of fear and Islamophobia. By cracking down on symbols of religious expression—in this case, the burkini—France runs the risk of making moderate Muslims feel alienated from the state. 

"This is the greatest weakness of the French in the fight against terrorism," Sennott said. "They do not understand religion. They do not hear the music of religion in people's daily lives."

"I think that's one of [the United States's] great strengths as a country: we do believe in religious tolerance, and let religion happen on its own," he said. "Freedom of religion puts extremists out of business."

To hear more from Charles Sennott, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.