Deeply unpopular Hollande calls for France to ’embrace’ Islam and rejects calls for a nationwide burkini ban, by Simon Holmes.

Islam can co-exist with secularism, President Francois Hollande said Thursday.

Don’t see much evidence for that.

‘Nothing in the idea of secularism opposes the practice of Islam in France, provided it respects the law,’ Hollande said.

There’s your problem, right there. Whose law? Sharia law? Mr Hollande, you’re not embracing a religion so much as a totalitarian political philosophy. Sarkozy, the previous right-wing French president, has a very different message:

Sarkozy, who has announced a bid to try to win back the presidency in next year’s election, has called for suspected radicals to be interned in camps.

The former president responded late Thursday to Hollande’s comments, saying that ‘democracy can’t be weak. We are France, we cannot accept impotence.’