The Burkini Saga: A tale of research and bigotry

This blog post started out as a simple exploration of the cultural differences in modesty as exemplified by the striking contrast of the burkini vs the bikini, but the research for it took me on quite a journey.

In my research I read a blog post about a Muslim mother arguing with her daughter over what constitutes "modest" and how hard it is for the mother to combat the influences of Lady Gaga and Rihanna. It got really interesting in the comments section though, where ignorant and small-minded people posted things like, "So putting a bikini on your daughter is unthinkable, but strapping a bomb to her is ok?", and "Muslims hate all of God’s creation. That’s why they cover their women". I was shocked. I have never come across such blatant hatred and bigotry. I knew the article had been reposted on a right wing conservative site, but I had some faith that people would still be civil or at least informed...

So I created an account to post a reply to remind what I hesitate to call "fellow" conservatives that our country was founded on religious freedom, which extends to all beliefs even Muslims, and also to commend the user who reposted it as a fantastic insight into the struggles of assimilation in America. Within two minutes of posting I received an email saying my posting privileges had been revoked because, "This is not a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of life". That's right, I'm not allowed to post anymore because they think I am...a liberal. Wow, that one got me laughing.

I then searched for the original blog post so that I could hopefully find a more informed discussion and less hatred, but to my utter disappointed I found more hatred. Instead I found a weird mixture of ultra-feminist and anti-Muslim sentiments. She felt that, "muslims are obsessed with sex, that's why they sexualize everything. that's why muslims think a woman who shows her hair is asking for it. muslim men are the most out of control men in the world".

Again, I was floored. I had no idea people actually thought like this. The ignorance hurts me on a deep and personal level. Where does all this hatred and anger come from? Why have millions of innocent people had to take the blame for the actions of a small group of extremists?

And to think, I stumbled upon all this hatred by simply searching "Burkini vs Bikini" on Google.