Posted on 04/15/2008 10:45:29 AM PDT by forkinsocket
PARIS (Reuters) - French former film star Brigitte Bardot went on trial on Tuesday for insulting Muslims, the fifth time she has faced the charge of "inciting racial hatred" over her controversial remarks about Islam and its followers.
Prosecutors asked that the Paris court hand the 73-year-old former sex symbol a two-month suspended prison sentence and fine her 15,000 euros ($23,760) for saying the Muslim community was "destroying our country and imposing its acts."
Since retiring from the film industry in the 1970s, Bardot has become a prominent animal rights activist but she has also courted controversy by denouncing Muslim traditions and immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.
She has been fined four times for inciting racial hatred since 1997, at first 1,500 euros and most recently 5,000.
Prosecutor Anne de Fontette told the court she was seeking a tougher sentence than usual, adding: "I am a little tired of prosecuting Mrs Bardot."
Bardot did not attend the trial because she said she was physically unable to. The verdict is expected in several weeks.
French anti-racist groups complained last year about comments Bardot made about the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in a letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy that was later published by her foundation.
Muslims traditionally mark Eid al-Adha by slaughtering a sheep or another animal to commemorate the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son on God's orders.
France is home to 5 million Muslims, Europe's largest Muslim community, making up 8 percent of France's population.
"I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts," the star of 'And God created woman' and 'Contempt' said.
Bardot has previously said France is being invaded by sheep-slaughtering Muslims and published a book attacking gays, immigrants and the unemployed, in which she also lamented the "Islamisation of France."
The truth is its best defense.
The French are fried.....
America... you’d BETTER NOT let this happen anywhere here.
My thoughts exactly. How sobering.
Ah, you would think so,
but a judge in Australia ruled in a case about “religious intolerance”
that the defendent wasn’t allowed to read the Koran in court as his defense,
because that, in and of itself, was religiously intolerant.
This is enough to make me forgive every stupid thing she ever said about the seal hunt.
Most “human rights” or “anti-hate” legislation specifically states that the truthfulness of a statement is insufficient as a defence.
All Americans must realize - for all their hubris and claims to enlightenment, Europe is once again making another swing to totalinarianism, led by the elites. It’s not the Nazi’s, but the will come in a different form of EU bureacracy, political correctness, and forced multiculturalism. It is part of the European fabric of life.
Then it’s time for the French to start taking heads again.
So.....bottom line is you can go to prison and get a $24,000 dollar fine in France for not being P.C.? Holy crap!...France bites the big one! If Free Republic was in France, we all would be in chains!
Someday we all may be in chains. Let them take away our guns and pass bogus laws like they have in Canada...See Mark Steyn...
Thank you. You are EggsAckley right.
Trust me, that is a VERY old photo. I saw one of her recently and she looks very bad.
She doesnt look BAD. She looks OLD. She chose not to be a golum like the other elderly actresses.
For well over 50 years she did.
The truth is its best defense.
The truth is only a defense if we are talking about slander. She was cited for inciting hatred and the truth is not a defense.
One cannot say what is obvious when racial hatred is the issue.
I wonder why she aged so much more than normal....my almost 82 year old Mother In Law looks better than she does....
Why can’t we get people with Bardot’s view to immigrate to this country instead of government sucking aliens?
Okay...I give up ...how does one post picks???
my almost 82 year old Mother In Law looks better than she does....
Genetics. She looks fine to me. Just like all the old women I remember in the neighborhood when I was growing up. Her rate of aging reminds me of Barbara Bush, who although gracious, is a pretty wrinkled woman.
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