Athena
April 17th, 2008, 03:13 PM
...Bridgette Bardot is being charged with "inciting racial hatred" for remarkes in a letter to French government officials protesting the slaughter of sheep during Eid-al-Kabir, a Muslim festival. In said communication, she referred to Muslims as, "this population that leads us around by the nose, [and] which destroys our country."
Apparently, in France, that's enough to be brought up on charges...Charges she's been convicted of on four prior occasions. From a TIME article:
In 1997, for example, Bardot was first convicted on the charge of "inciting racial hatred" for her open letter to French daily Le Figaro, complaining of "foreign over-population", mostly by Muslim families.
The following year she was convicted anew for decrying the loss of French identity and tradition due to the multiplication of mosques "while our church bells fall silent for want of priests."
In 2000, Bardot was again convicted — this time for comments in her book Pluto's Square, whose chapter "Open Letter to My Lost France" grieved for "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims." And in 2004, another Bardot book, A Cry In the Silence, again took up the question of immigration and Islam — ultimately running afoul of anti-racism laws by generally associating Islam with the 9/11 terror attacks, and denouncing the "Islamization of France" by people she described as "invaders".
Source (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1731098,00.html)
Anti-racism laws. Do you think they're helping? I don't know. France did endure race riots in '05 and, as far as I can tell, Frances anti-racism laws were established prior to that (the earliest I can find in '01 and the latest in '03). Despite these laws, France saw sharp increases in racist or xenophobic violence in '03 and '04, leading up to the riots. Source (http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06627-discrim-edf-france.pdf)
Apparently, outlawing certain behavior doesn't necessarily deter that behavior. Could the legislative attemps at political correctness actually be hurting the cause and contributing to an increase in racist speech and behavior?
Apparently, in France, that's enough to be brought up on charges...Charges she's been convicted of on four prior occasions. From a TIME article:
In 1997, for example, Bardot was first convicted on the charge of "inciting racial hatred" for her open letter to French daily Le Figaro, complaining of "foreign over-population", mostly by Muslim families.
The following year she was convicted anew for decrying the loss of French identity and tradition due to the multiplication of mosques "while our church bells fall silent for want of priests."
In 2000, Bardot was again convicted — this time for comments in her book Pluto's Square, whose chapter "Open Letter to My Lost France" grieved for "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims." And in 2004, another Bardot book, A Cry In the Silence, again took up the question of immigration and Islam — ultimately running afoul of anti-racism laws by generally associating Islam with the 9/11 terror attacks, and denouncing the "Islamization of France" by people she described as "invaders".
Source (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1731098,00.html)
Anti-racism laws. Do you think they're helping? I don't know. France did endure race riots in '05 and, as far as I can tell, Frances anti-racism laws were established prior to that (the earliest I can find in '01 and the latest in '03). Despite these laws, France saw sharp increases in racist or xenophobic violence in '03 and '04, leading up to the riots. Source (http://www.humanrightsfirst.info/pdf/06627-discrim-edf-france.pdf)
Apparently, outlawing certain behavior doesn't necessarily deter that behavior. Could the legislative attemps at political correctness actually be hurting the cause and contributing to an increase in racist speech and behavior?