Banning The "Burquini"

It would appear that some European countries are learning.

Muslim women have been banned from wearing the burqini one Italian town of Varallo Sesia.

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."

Additionally

Last week a swimming pool in Paris refused entry to a burqini-clad woman on similar grounds, adding to tensions over Muslim dress in France.

The incident came as French lawmakers conducted hearings on whether to ban the burqa after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the head-to-toe body covering and veil was "not welcome" in France, which is home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority.

Mr Buonanno belongs to the Northern League, a party allied with the centre-Righ

The People of Freedom party led by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister.

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.

"We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity," he added.

Some swimming pools had already caved into women-only sessions, he said, but this was apparently "not sufficient for fundamentalists".

"What they want is a world of burkas," one official warned.

France is home to Europe's largest five million Muslim population. In 2004, it passed a law banning students from wearing veils and other religious symbols in schools.

I really can't add anything except to say good for them. Finally, countries willing to stand up for themselves and their own culture. Nobody with any ability to think freely and any knowledge of Islam at all knows that they would do the same to us. The above statement about wearing a bikini in a Muslim country is absolutely true. In their country we would be forced to adopt and abide by their culture and the same requirements should be extended to them. They've proven they want just the opposite of blending in. This is nothing more than attempting to make a political and religious statement and these people are simply attempting to play the victim as they always do.