To think this is fucking crazy

[itstheendoftheworldasweknowitnow]

We’re en route to a holiday rental in France. I wasn’t sure if the pool was shared or not between other guests so emailed the owner to ask. This is his reply - which I put in to google translate
Could you tell me if sharing the swimming pool with us who occupy the ground floor bothers you and for what reason? Recently we refused the rental because the wife and the two young daughters were veiled; are you english or muslim? We do not want you to make the trip and see yourself refused access to our property for reasons of displaying religious beliefs which are very resented by the neighborhood.

Fuck Fuck Fuck
What the hell do I do?
I am not a Muslim.
I am also not a racist.

But they werent affecting other people. They never expected the other guests to miss out on the pool and left the pool without fuss, dipping in when the ladies were out. They just asked us to tell them (if we felt like it) if there were times that we could give them to use the pool if we so wished- and it was only after we asked them, as they were prepared to just work around everyone else when no one was around.
I really didnt see the issue and still dont. I just dont feel like hating on someone just because of their religious beliefs, but you do you.

Di you suggest losing thousands of pounds on a holiday that was prebooked is something you would personally do for the principle just to punish an owner of the air bnb and show your higher moral ground?

"I think something must have got lost in translation. English is a nationality. Muslim is a religion. Many people are both. I choose not to share my religious views with others. If this is going to be a problem for you, I am happy for you to refund my money and I will stay elsewhere. We have no issues with sharing the pool."

Can you not reply along the lines of:

Apologies, I am not sure if things have been lost on Google translate, but I just wanted to clarify if we were sharing the pool as I am really looking forward to a swim after our travels, but worried I may have forgotten my robe! Hopefully you'll have large towels anyway.

I might check it’s not illegal to play “Top 5 most beautiful Adhan in the world” in France and then play them on a Bluetooth speaker as I swim. That should settle the matter.

You've paid, you're en route, you're not Muslim and so won't be refused. You don't have to socialise, have anything to do with or like the people you're renting the holiday home from. Stop overthinking, you can't change other people's perspective on life. Go enjoy your holiday 🤷‍♀️

I would find that exchange alarming. Not (just) because of the racism - I've had to grit my teeth about this since arriving in the UK 25 years ago, when I discovered that a lot of people are absolutely delighted with their casual racism because beating the Nazis cancels it out, or something - but because of the sheer unhingedness (if that's a word) of responding to "excuse me, is the swimming pool shared?" with "Are you Muslim? You better not be be Muslim! We don't allow those around here!!" That's proper back-away-slowly-and-avoid-eye-contact-territory

Quite. But to be fair to the OP they forgot that face coverings were banned in public swimming pools in France.

Anyway, I'd go there, try and forget about it, enjoy the well deserved time away with your kids and never book their again.

Surely though the OP should be leading by example, sorry kids holiday is off because the owner is a racist otherwise you are just teaching children to look the other way, OP either live by your principals or you are a hypocrite, don’t use your children as a convenient excuse.

Breezy 'I was just wondering; thanks!' message, enjoy your holiday, leave a candid review on the site and make Booking.com aware of what he said. I don't know if they have the same terms as Airbnb, but if you tell them they can make their decision.

I think disliking artefacts of a religion is fine, being mean to individuals is not. The veiled bit is fair enough if he wouldn’t be able to use his own pool at the same time. The bit about how basically anyone wearing islamic dress is not welcome in the whole neighbourhood is pretty awful.

I would go as you are on the way anyway. Maybe you could talk him around? I dislike the veil intensely, I’ve also met some perfectly nice women who have worn it. These are two separate things.

OP could you post the reply in French, there must be speakers on here who could check the Google translation, it may well not have been intended as it came across.

Exactly. If one of the children was muslim or a person of colour you wouldn't still be going in order to avoid disappointing them.

It's been done, a few times.

Define what you mean by “woke”.

I'd go, enjoy the holiday and report after. The poor family that got turned away for being religious.

I’m French, the tone of the message is polite - the q about ‘english or muslim’ is not ok though. In France people aren’t allowed religious signs in public places (not just Muslim, any religion) just to give you the context. Reading between the lines, he might have an issue in the past with people using the pool fully clothed or complaining about the owners being able to see/access tje pool area and women not being able to able to use it because of that.
Personally, and keeping in mind you want the holiday to happen, I would explain that you were asking out of interest and that you don’t have any religious constraint around it (of not the case ofc)

It doesn’t sound like the owner is outright banning Muslims, he is banning full face coverings like everywhere else in France because of the law. He also wants his family to be able to use their pool whenever they want, without either party feeling uncomfortable. He has obviously had a tricky situation previously.

If you want to test whether he is racist or not, I would try donning a balaclava in the pool, see what transpires.

The hypocrisy of going but then planning to report them. Either stand by your principles and cancel, asking booking for your money and the reason why or go and forget it.

France is a secular state; their attitude to religion/religious displays is vastly different. Also, if you post the original message, maybe I or other native french can explain to you how it is meant

Sorry, there's 8 pages and I lost interest 💐

I'm not saying its right, but the sad truth is many people in the country can't afford to not look the other way.

I doubt anyone in the country agrees with child labour, but many will still go out and buy samsungs and iPhones or cheap clothes from primark etc that have a history of exploiting child labour.

People can virtue signal all they want until it actually affects them.

sorry, I'm very slow. I can read that they would like to know why you would find it annoying that they share the pool with you. The part about being muslim; may he mean that muslim women would not feel comfortable sharing a pool with men?

Yes, they could do that and use the immediate refund from Booking.com to book somewhere else with a pool, checking for racist views before booking the new place. It depends how near to the destination they are.

About the pool!