Why am I writing about something that really shouldn't matter to me in the least, especially given this current bout of I-don't-give-a-shit-itis I am suffering from? It concerns the burkini, you know, Gentle Reader, that aquatic hazmat suit worn by some conservative Muslim women in France which has been getting them busted by the police for public indecency. Yes, you are reading me correctly, dear. Public indecency. For wearing too many clothes in public. For not being secular. For flouting secular French values. For not dressing (or undressing) like whores in public. Guilty for being Muslim.
There are so many nuances and complexities to this conundrum that I don't really know where to begin. I didn't think for a while about writing about this, but my commitment to multiculturalism, Canadian style, seems to demand that I write something. What makes this difficult is that I would have to write two distinct essays. Perhaps here I will write two different letters: one to French society, the other to conservative French Muslims.
Dear French Society:
I understand that your country is going through a nightmare, after as many as three major terrorist attacks in less than two years. No one is going to emerge out of this without feeling traumatized. Muslims, regardless of their variety of Islam, are the current bogeyman for some and perhaps for many French citizens. It is completely understandable that many are going to feel nervous and even hostile around any evident signs of Islam, especially the conservative or radial variety and that others are going to demonize all Muslims as being un=French and therefor evil, or at least anti-secular. You are probably not going to like much what I'm about to tell you but I'm telling you anyway.
This is rather a complex matter and I don't think I would do it justice in one single, interminable and exhausting post. So I am dividing it into three parts. This is the introduction. Tomorrow I will write the main body and conclusion of my letter to French society. The following day will be my letter to the Muslim community in France. If necessary I will extend this series into a fourth part by way of conclusion.
Wish me luck.
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