You Can't Do This in France

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PARIS (AP) - A Paris court on Tuesday convicted Brigitte Bardot of provoking discrimination and racial hatred for writing that Muslims are destroying France.
The court also handed down a $23,325 fine against the former screen siren and animal rights campaigner.

A leading French anti-racism group known as MRAP filed a lawsuit last year over a letter she sent to then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. The remarks were published in her foundation's quarterly journal.

In the December 2006 letter to Sarkozy, now the president, Bardot said France is "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."

She was referring to the Muslim feast of Aid el-Kebir, celebrated by slaughtering sheep.

French anti-racism laws prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds. Bardot had been convicted four times previously for inciting racial hatred.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D912KDCG0&show_article=1

Now, this is a tough call for me. An animal rights blowhard gets busted by a government court for speaking against a violent religion in France. Confused

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Re: You Can't Do This in France

cjhsa wrote:

French anti-racism laws prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds. Bardot had been convicted four times previously for inciting racial hatred.

Isn't this the same country that forbade Muslim females from wearing headshawls? So, it's illegal to express a negative opinion about a religion, but you just can't practice it?

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So much for Voltaire's "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

If America had passed laws fining and potentially imprisoning people for expressing political thought, there would already be three active threads about it. And this was in a private letter, no less.

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Re: You Can't Do This in France

cjhsa wrote:

Now, this is a tough call for me. An animal rights blowhard gets busted by a government court for speaking against a violent religion in France.

In France, like in most countries, courts are independent.

Bardot got convicted now the fifth time, btw, for "incitation à la haine racial" = 'racial hatred'.

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Equus wrote:

Isn't this the same country that forbade Muslim females from wearing headshawls?

No. You must have mixed up something. (Teachers and pupils aren't allowed to to wear headshawls - like any other persons aren't allowed to wear any religious stuff in schools as well: seperation of state and church, you know.

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Brandon9000 wrote:

So much for Voltaire's "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." .

So YOU can say anything racial hated what you like.

Yes, cjhsa and you, Brandom, do that here ...

What makes me wonder is: what do you think now about Sarkozy-darling? Bardot wrote that racial hatred stuff in an animal right activism letter to him?

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:
So much for Voltaire's "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." .

So YOU can say anything racial hated what you like.

Yes, cjhsa and you, Brandom, do that here ...

What makes me wonder is: what do you think now about Sarkozy-darling? Bardot wrote that racial hatred stuff in an animal right activism letter to him?

Yes, indeed, were I so inclined, I could say that or anything else that didn't consitute an invocation to iminent violence. Our constitution explicitly permits the expression of opinions, including repugnant opinions. The details don't matter - the fact of arresting someone for expressing an opinion speaks for itself. How she said it and to whom have nothing to do with the fact that France now forbids the expression of certain ideas. This is an egregious demonstration of civil rights violations.

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Kill all militant islamofascists now. Mr. Sarkozy, stick that in your pipe and smoke it (in public).

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Sorry - "imminent" with two Ms.

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The US is a country where any kind of free speech, even the heinous ones, is granted by the constitution.

In France, we have other laws:

- You can not incite, by speech or otherwise, to racial hatred.

Courts, which are independent from the government, tend to sentence toughly when people go overboard.

This was the case in Bardot's trial as she is a recurrent offender.

Her letter, as far as I know, was a public one, addressed to the Prime minister.

- Headshawls is another matter, given the separation of the churchs and the state.

French state is laicist.

School and government administration buildings are owned by the state.

No display of religion symbols (headshawls, crosses..) is allowed inside them.

In the street, you do whatever you want about public display of those symbols.

But as always, people outside France, and even inside, are puzzled because they don't know the reality of laws and events.

However, they pass moral judgements, with so few info at hand..

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Okay.

In France, like in most other European countries, racism is penalised.
And since she didn't obey that law now for the fifth time, the court actually could have send her to prison.

Fine that you can say/write etc racism where and how you like it.
(Actually, I had had a different opinion. But you are the legal racist here ...)

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No, we are free men and women. It's what our armed forces fight and die to protect.

You'll never get it - so please don't come back here.

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cjhsa wrote:

You'll never get it - so please don't come back here.

Did Craven sell the site and you got it now?

Or who the hell are you to send me away, you bigot?

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Penalties for an opinion... unreal...

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If I'm a bigot for pointing out that Walt is retarded then so be it.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

Okay.

In France, like in most other European countries, racism is penalised.
And since she didn't obey that law now for the fifth time, the court actually could have send her to prison.

Fine that you can say/write etc racism where and how you like it.
(Actually, I had had a different opinion. But you are the legal racist here ...)

You really don't get it. I neither practice nor condone racism. The point is that here we believe that everyone has the right to express his opinion, no matter what it is. We believe that this is an inherent right of all living beings. If an opinion is false, it will probably be defeated in a free and open debate. This reminds me of the behavior of the former Soviet Union.

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Exactly.

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I wonder a bit now about all the various US "HATE CRIMES ACTS" ...

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They deal with actual crimes....

Google "Fred Phelps"

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cjhsa wrote:

They deal with actual crimes....

And now tell me exactly that is what Bardot did, five times within the last 11 years. And not what YOU think it was that she did but what it is according to the French laws (here: "Diffamation, discrimination et Incitation à la haine raciale"). (A law since 1881, btw.)

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You Can't Do This in France

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