Free Republic

In a dramatic last minute reversal, the top French administrative court ruled Thursday to uphold a ban on anti-Semitic comic Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala. The ruling overturned a local court decision earlier in the day allowing his performance in Nantes, and came right before the show was to begin. The local Nantes judge earlier Thursday had overruled the ban of the comic, which was implemented according to the instructions of French Interior Minister Manuel Valls and President Francois Hollande. The ban was previously upheld Wednesday in the city of Pau regarding a planned show in Biarritz. Valls turned to the Council...

French footballer Nicolas Anelka denied, Sunday, that a gesture he made during a Saturday match was Anti-Semitic, according to Agence France Presse. Using the Twitter social Website, Anelka argued in his tweets that the gesture - in which he thrust his straightened right arm downwards while tapping his bicep with the other hand - was merely "anti-establishment". adding, "I don't know what religion has to do with it. Of course I'm not an anti-Semite or racist and (I) stand by my gesture." Anelka did assert that the gesture was a dedication to French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala who has made...