After being in the politics section I can only imagine how much we all would be fined from time to time. I sure am glad I’m American.
Former French film star and sex kitten Brigitte Bardot, star of the haughty French cinema has been fined 15,000 Euros (,000) by a court in France. The star published an openly racist letter on her website complaining that Muslims were ‘destroying our country by imposing their ways’. The aging star, now 73 years of age was not in the court to hear the verdict heard against her. The Paris court took the action against the ‘And God Created Woman’ star on Tuesday this week, although Ms Bardot was unavailable for comment.
On this occasion (one of many) Bardot has been found guilty of stoking the fires of racial hated. Her latest outburst was on her website, if anyone reads it. The fine also included a small pay out to two anti-racism groups that had pursued Bardot over her overtly racist and perhaps xenophobic comments. Bardot said she was ‘tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us.’ Interestingly, the BBC, Reuters, AOL and many other websites carried the quotes and yet, they have not been arrested for distribution of racist material.
The wrinkly aging film star was once considered to be the epitomy of European beauty. Her pale skin and pouty lips made her a sex symbol across Europe, if not the world.
But this isn’t the first time that Bardot has been found guilty of hate crimes, she has been in trouble for exactly the same crime four times before. Many believe that her rabid and rampant anti-Islamic stance comes from her vociferous animal rights activities. Muslims ritually slaughter animals (sheep) as a sacrifice on Eid-al Adha. The first time that a court imposed a fine against Bardot for this type of outburst was back in 1997.
No stranger to controversy, Bardot published a book ‘A Cry in the Silence’ back in May 2003 and caused a huge furore as she condemned ‘gays, modern art, politicians, muslims and all immigrants’ say that they had destroyed her beloved French culture. Bardot said ‘I am against the Islamisation of France’.
Bardot was fined thirty thousand frances back in 2000 after again being convicted of racial hated in her book ‘Pluto’s Square’. In her book, she writes an open letter to her beloved nation of France. The aged racist writes: ‘my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims’.
There is some element of irony that France, a country that regularly imposes its Islamaphobic will on its citizens should fine one of its legendary film stars for holding an unpopular belief. France already proved itself to be a religiously intolerant nation when it banned Muslim girls from wearing headscarves at school and civil servants from wearing them in public life. This can be viewed as part of a mainly Catholic nation’s fear of the rise of ‘oppressive’ Islam within mainstream French culture. The reason given was that people felt that the headscarf was a symbol of oppression. One has to ask ‘What people?’ surely not the Muslims wearing them, instead, do-gooding French liberals, who want to save the nice girls from their ‘oppressive’ religion. One can only presume that all French people were banned from wearing their Christian crosses too, oh wait, No. Britain and Germany have no such rules, I imagine that’s why these countries are filling up with angry Muslims. That’s okay, good old kindly Britain will take them all and when they get here, they’ll still be angry and they’ll grab a backpack and head for the nearest Tube… This is precisely the kind of attitude that’s getting people into trouble, treating all Muslims the same is a limiting belief and cannot be tolerated in a modern liberal country. But France has never been a modern liberal country, so… why don’t they just let people enjoy their freedom of speech? Why not? Because they aren’t a modern liberal country. This from the country that rolled over and played dead when Hitler marched through it and wouldn’t go to war against Saddam Hussein.
However, one has to wonder when this spent and washed up ‘actress’ will ever finally learn her lesson and be quiet. She clearly holds views that mainstream France finds repulsive. Only the Government and its legislature are allowed to act with needs-blind cultural imperialism.
In the UK, a hairdresser was successfully sued for refusing to hire a girl with a headscarf. Now, there’s a right-on liberal attittude we can all appreciate!