Brigitte Bardot Fined for Inciting Racial Hatred
 

I must admit, I was a bit surprised by this when I read it. I had no idea she felt the way she did about certain ethnic groups.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...t&section=news

PARIS (Reuters) - French actress-turned-animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot was convicted Thursday of inciting racial hatred and ordered to pay $6,000 -- the fourth such fine for the former sex symbol since 1997.

The Paris court sentenced Bardot, 69, for remarks in her book "A Scream in the Silence," an outspoken attack on gays, immigrants and the jobless that shocked France last year.

In the book, she laments the "Islamization of France" and the "underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam."

"Mme. Bardot presents Muslims as barbaric and cruel invaders, responsible for terrorist acts and eager to dominate the French to the extent of wanting to exterminate them," the court said.

France's 5-million-member Muslim community is the largest in Europe.

Bardot, who was not present for the verdict, denied the charges in a tearful court appearance last month, saying her book did not target Islam or people from North Africa.

She told the court France was going through a period of decadence and said she opposed interracial marriage.

"I was born in 1934, at that time interracial marriage wasn't approved of," she said.

"There are many new languages in the new Europe. Mediocrity is taking over from beauty and splendor. There are many people who are filthy, badly dressed and badly shaven."

In her book, she also attacks homosexuals as "fairground freaks," condemns the presence of women in government and denounces the "scandal of unemployment benefits."

Bardot's attacks on Muslims prompted anti-racism groups to launch legal proceedings against the former star, who turned her back on film after 46 films to concentrate on animal welfare.

Bardot, who in her 1960s heyday was the epitome of French feminine beauty, was fined $3,250 in January 1998 after being convicted of inciting racial hatred in comments about civilian massacres in Algeria.

Four months earlier, a court fined her for saying France was being overrun by sheep-slaughtering Muslims.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

She was fined for something she said, something she wrote?

Good to know that France still cherishes the right to free speech.

-sm

you are free to say anything you want as long as we agree.

i think she is senile and foolish for saying the things she does, but how can she be fined for it? wouldn't someone have to buy her book to be offended?

that's like buying playboy and trying to sue because their were offensive images inside.

France never cherished the right to free speech. They've got a government department dedicated to preventing the evolution of their language. If you're not supposed to publish certain words, certain thoughts can't be far behind.

seriously, after reading things like this i always come back to the same question. why are we concerned about what the french think of us?

They've been an ally since before our country was founded.

only becasue of a common enemy and their long range goals, honkey.


fuck the french......with no grease

allies, like friends are not necessarily forever. when is the last time the french came to the aid of the US?

Actually you can't tell en idiot idiot in Europe... And it has nothing to do with right of free speech. If you offend somebody with what you are saying than this person can raise charges against you. And we over here in Europe have bad memories about yenophobe and inciting racial hatred, so there are limits. You can go on and ask what would happen if the "majority" is against democracy, what would you do? And to hijack the thread. What would happen if in US the "majority" would be against the constitution on constitutional rights?

shit-stirrer

i'm sorry pi - i don't follow.

Amazing that someone possessed of such beauty can be capable of such ugliness.

The right to free speech in Europe tends not to include the right to incite racial hatred .....We had a teensy bit of a problem with that sort of thing a few years back, dont know if ye've heard boutthat? Fella by the name of Hitler got all stirred up about social darwinism and the German Volks' glorious destiny. You must know him, he had a particularly silly moustache and a tendency to gesticulate wildly....

For as long as there has been a Europe there have been pogroms within it. We dont need the right to incite racial or religious hatred. It's very difficult to get something censored in the UK but incitement to racial hatred or violence will get you a) censored and b) prosecuted.

aren't we all, to one degree or another? i mean, where would we be without the stirrers of the world? standing in front of a pot of unstirred shit, that's where.

i'm probably going to get stoned for say this but, wtf -

i despise hitler and everything he supported, caused, ... but - i think hitler, or any idiot scumbag, should have the right to say (or write in a book) just about anything. i may want to drag them out back and kick the shit out of them, but getting sued (outside of libel, or is it slander) after writing ignorant inflamatory statements in a book is pretty ridiculous.

hitler would have been just another loser if the people hadn't followed him. genocide didn't happen because adolph opened his mouth. those atrocities were due to people following him of their own free will.

to say otherwise is just as ridiculous as Judas Priest being sued because a kid killed himself "cuz the music told him to"

...and now that there's a rule against it, racial hatred is completely gone from Europe.

http://cellar.org/2004/cemetaryattack.jpg

An unidentified member of the Jewish community looks at Nazi signs painted on headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Herrlisheim, eastern France, April 30, 2004. About 100 headstones have been desecrated in the cemetery.