Politics is unavoidably a clash of values. We see this in the decision by some French municipalities to stop Muslim women wearing the body-covering ‘burkini’ to the beach. Should Muslim women be free to wear the burkini, or is wearing it inherently oppressive? Is France protecting itself against ‘excessive multi-culturalism’, or is the ban an excessive attempt to protect ‘French values’?

The debate kicked off in earnest this week when we saw pictures of policemen at a beach in Nice, where the recent Bastille Day carnage happened, surrounding a Muslim lady wearing her ‘burkini’ and seemingly forcing her to remove some of it.

I agree with Elizabeth Oldfield, director of Theos in the UK, when she wrote in Newsweek a few days ago: “The Islamic State militant group [ISIS] and groups like them are delighted every time policies like these hit the headlines, because they give credence to an us-vs-them narrative, in which Muslims will never be truly welcome or free anywhere except the so-called caliphate. This humiliated woman will be on recruiting posters by tomorrow. Let’s stop playing into their hands.”

The burkini ban basically means that Muslim women, who subscribe to Muslim beliefs about modesty, will no longer be able to go to beaches in parts of France, for now at least. There is an issue, of course, about whether the decision to wear a burkini is in fact a free one or has been forced upon a given woman by her husband or community. But where it is a free choice, it is very hard to see a strong argument against it. It is not as though all women are suddenly being forced to wear burkinis.

I note that a French court is to decide today about the standing of burkini bans in the 30 towns and cities that have so far enforced it. Hopefully common sense will prevail.